COVID Future Survey

Project Description

Virtually overnight, a large fraction of U.S. households has transitioned from a reality of long commutes to telecommuting, from in-person to online classes and business meetings, and from in-store to online shopping – even for groceries. Many of these changes were happening already, but COVID-19 has pressed the fast-forward button. After the threat of contagion is gone, to what extent will American society “go back” to our pre-COVID-19 way of life? Knowing the answer to this question is critical for making good business and policy decisions. To gather data and gain insights into the future, a team of engineers, planners, and geographers conducted the COVID-19 and the Future Survey, collecting data in multiple waves throughout the pandemic to track the evolution of behaviors from its early stages to the post-pandemic era. The insights derived from the survey will be crucial in planning for the post-pandemic world, helping researchers and planners make informed decisions about the future.

Faculty members and students from the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and the School of Engineering at Arizona State University, as well as the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and many other researchers contributed to the survey design. The National Science Foundation, the TOMNET University Transportation Center, the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at Arizona State University, and CONVERGE at the University of Colorado Boulder provided funding for the survey.

This page serves as an archive for all the research products related to the COVID Future Survey, including papers, webinar recordings, slides, and data. If you have any questions, please contact Deborah Salon at [email protected].

Team Members

Arizona State University

Deborah Salon
Ram M. Pendyala
Sara Khoeini
Denise Baker
Tassio Magassy
Nicole Corcoran
Abbie Dirks
Laura Mirtich
Holden Weisman

University of Illinois at Chicago

Sybil Derrible
Kouros Mohammadian
Ehsan Rahimi
Rishabh Chauhan
Ali Shamshiripour
Mohammadjavad Javadinasr
Yalda Mohammadi

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Matthew Bhagat-Conway

Research Findings

Below, you can find information about some of the projects that our team developed with data from the COVID Future survey. 

  • 101st Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 2022
    • T. Magassy, E. Rahimi, M. Mohammadi, A. Davatgari, A. Mohammadian, R. Chauhan, M. Conway, R. Pendyala, D. Salon, S. Derrible, S. Khoeini. “Observed and Expected Impacts of COVID 19 on Travel Behavior in the United States. A Panel Study Analysis”
    • M. Mohammadi, E. Rahimi, A. Davatgari, M. Javadinasr, A. Mohammadian,M. W. Bhagat-Conway, D. Salon, R. S. Chauhan, S. Derrible, R. M. Pendyala. “Examining the Stickiness of Telecommuting after the COVID-19 Pandemic”
    • S. Khoeini, S. Sharda, D. Baker, R.M. Pendyala, M.W. Bhagat-Conway, D. Salon, L. Mirtich, R.S. Chauhan, S. Derrible, E. Rahimi, M.J. Javadinasr, and A. Mohammadian. “Expected Change in US Air Travel after the COVID-19 Pandemic”
    • Mirtich, L., Conway, M.W., Salon, D., Kedron, P., Derrible, S., Khoeini,S., Mohammadian, A., & Rahimi, E. “The Stability of Transport-Related Attitudes over Time: A Case Study during COVID-19”
    • Salon, D., Bhagat-Conway, M.W., Mirtich, L., Costello, A., Rahimi, E., Mohammadian, K., Chauhan, R.S., Derrible, S., Baker, D., Khoeini, S., and Pendyala, R.M. “The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on telecommuting in the United States.”
  • International Choice Modeling Conference, May 2021
    • Khoeini, S. “Expected Change in US Air Travel after the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) Model”
  • 99th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 2020
    • Salon, D., and Pendyala, R. “Forecasting the “Stickiness” of Pandemic-Era Travel Behavior Changes. The Future of Travel in a Post-COVID-19 World”
    • Derrible, S., and Mohammadian, K. “How Have Attitudes and Perceptions Affected People’s Work and Travel Behaviors in a COVID Era?”
  • Other Presentations
    • Salon, D. How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect the future of transport? (2021) Mobility 21, National Mobility Summit, Online.
    • Salon, D. How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect transport choices into the future? (2021) Research to Practice Transit Symposium, Online.
    • Salon, D. How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect transport choices into the future? (2021) California Air Resources Board VMT Retreat, Online.
    • Salon, D. How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect transport choices into the future? (2021) Focus on the Future 2021 Conference, Online.
    • Salon, D. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on telecommuting in the United States. (2021). Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Annual Meeting, Online.
    • Salon, D. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on telecommuting in the United States. (2021). North American Regional Science Association Annual Meeting, Online.
    • Derrible, S., 2021 “The Future of Transportation in Illinois: Depopulation, Impacts of COVID-19, and Integration with other Infrastructure Systems”, Fall Planning Conference, Illinois Department of Transportation, November 2, Chicago, IL, United States (online)
    • Mohammadian, A. (2020). How is COVID-19 reshaping activity-travel behavior?. Bridging Transport Researchers. Online.
    • Salon, D. (2021). How will COVID-19 change consumer freight demand?. Transportation Research Board Freight Surveys Subcommittee Meeting. Online.
    • Salon, D. (2020). How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect the future of transport?. Bridging Transport Researchers. Online.
    • Salon, D. (2020). How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect the future of transport?. Lake Arrowhead Symposium. Online. Video Link
    • Salon, D. (2022). How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect public transit demand into the future? (2022) UCLA Lake Arrowhead Symposium, Los Angeles, CA. Video Link.
    • Salon, D. (2020). How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect the future of transport?. Three Revolutions Research Workshop. Online.
    • Capasso da Silva, D. (2020). Impacts of COVID-19 on long-distance air trips: A look at Americans’ expectations. Bridging Transport Researchers. Online.
    • Capasso da Silva, D. (2021) US Post-pandemic Travel Patterns: Telecommuting, E-commerce, Mode choice. ASU SSEBE 11th Student Symposium. Online.
    • Shamshiripour, A. (2020). Investigating the convenience and distractibility on the intentions to work from home after the COVID-19 pandemic. Bridging Transport Researchers. Online.
    • Chauhan, R.S. (2021). Commute during COVID-19 in urban, rural, and suburban United States. Ascus 2021. Online.

November 2020: TOMNET-hosted webinar to communicate highlights from our survey to the public. Slides can be dowloaded using the links below and a recording of the webcast is available here

Additional webinars:

  • Salon, D. How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect the future of transport? (2021) AECOM Webinar, Online.
  • Salon, D. Investigating attitudinal and behavior changes in US households during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. (2021) COVID Information Commons Webinar, Online. Video Link.
  • Salon, D. How COVID-19 Changed Our Cities: Evidence from a Multi-Wave National Survey. (2022) TREC Weekly Seminar, Portland State University, Portland, OR. Video Link.

Data Download

To download the COVID Future survey data, use THIS LINK to the COVID Future ASU Dataverse!

This survey is a joint project of Arizona State University and the University of Illinois Chicago with support from the National Science Foundation.