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Category: Project

Description: 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.