Comprehensive Literature Review on the Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Public Road Transportation System: Challenges and Solutions

The COVID-19 pandemic is a significant public health problem and the leading cause of reduction in the demand and supply of public transit in the last three years. It has caused an unprecedented reduction in the demand for public road transportation, and it has changed passengers’ perceptions from positive to negative when it comes to using public transportation amenities. There is an increasing concern that the public road transportation systems are witnessing a new horizon, especially now that developed and developing countries are trying to resume their daily activities post COVID-19 pandemic. In this research, we focused on the overview of literature reviews of research within the past three years that focused on the challenges and solutions of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public road transportation systems, especially when it comes to the enforcement of physical distancing in public transportation, usage of face masks and government interventions. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were used in reviewing the articles used for this literature review, and an original 140 articles were reduced to 100 articles that were used in this literature review. This research aims to create an overview literature review that highlights the impact of the pandemic on public transportation and identifies strategic ways in which urban planners and public road transportation researchers can develop constructive and efficient public road transportation planning to ensure the sustainability of public transportation systems in the post-COVID-19 era. This literature review extends our knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic in public road transportation. It also provides additional evidence concerning the effectiveness of physical distancing and the use of face masks to prevent the COVID-19 virus in public road transportation networks.