Visualizing ventilation in the bus: Addressing risk perception in public transport passengers.

Background. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a communicative intervention in addressing passengers’ increased risk perception of getting infected with COVID-19 in public buses and thereby improving travel-related well-being after the pandemic. Method. A pre-registered quasi-experimental field-study (N = 306) was conducted in two public bus line bundles. The intervention consisted of visualizing the fresh air supply in the bus via tinsel garlands. Findings. The intervention successfully increased passengers’ awareness of fresh air supply in the bus (in the intervention group as compared to the control group; d = 0.25). However, this awareness did neither reduce passengers’ risk perception, nor did it increase their subjective well-being in the bus. An explorative analysis identified crowding, and general COVID-19 risk perception as major predictors of risk perception on-board. Conclusion. The study revealed first-hand, real-time insights in bus passengers’ risk perception, travel well-being and their major predictors during the out fading COVID-19 pandemic.

背景：本研究评估了在公共汽车中针对乘客对感染 COVID-19 风险感知增加的沟通干预措施的有效性，从而在疫情之后提升其出行相关福祉。方法：一项预先注册的准实验性现场研究（N = 306）在两个公共汽车线路组合中进行。干预措施包括通过彩带装饰来可视化汽车内的新鲜空气供应。发现：干预措施成功提高了乘客对汽车内新鲜空气供应的认识（与对照组成员相比，效应量 d = 0.25）。然而，这种认识既没有降低乘客的风险感知，也没有增加他们在车内的主观福祉。探索性分析确定了拥挤和一般性的 COVID-19 风险感知为车内风险感知的主要预测因子。结论：该研究揭示了在 COVID-19 疫情消退期间，公交车乘客的风险感知、出行福祉及其主要预测因子的第一手、实时洞见。