Journal of Transport Geography 104 (2022) 103420

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Journal of Transport Geography

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo

Visualising transport geography

Geovisualizing the changes in metro passenger flows of Kunming under the

impact of COVID-19
Qinran Zhang a, b, Haoran Yang a, b, *
a
The Center for Modern Chinese City Studies, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
b
The School of Urban and Regional Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China

A R T I C L E I N F O

Keywords:
COVID-19
Travel behavior
Passenger flow
Metro
Geovisualization

1. Introduction 2. Materials and methods

The outbreak of COVID-19 has seriously threatened people's health.
Most countries have implemented border controls, lockdowns, social
isolation, and other measures to inhibit the spread of COVID-19, which
consequently affected numerous aspects of people's lives, especially
their use of public transport (Mützel et al., 2021). Metro systems, as
important mass transit within cities, undertake people's vast travel de­
mands. However, during the sudden outbreak of disasters, it is difficult
to hastily make the most reasonable response, because transportation
departments usually lack a comprehensive, rapid, and quantitative un­
derstanding of the performance of metro systems and the existing travel
demand (Steenhuisen, 2005). Some studies have confirmed that COVID-
19 would significantly reduce metro passenger flows, which is difficult
to recover in a short time. Meanwhile, there are differences in passenger
flow changes of different types of stations (Chang et al., 2021). In China,
metro passenger flow during the pandemic was more affected by the
supply side, while the period after the lifting of restrictions, were mainly
affected by travel demand (Xiang et al., 2021). This short study aims to
explore the spatio-temporal differentiation of metro passenger flows at
the station level through geo-visualization of metro passenger flows
before, during, and after the pandemic. The results provide empirical
evidence for administrators to formulate reasonable public transport
plans and urban construction.
Kunming is a fast-growing metro and second-tier city in western
China. According to the Kunming Urban Master Plan (2011− 2020), we
delineated the boundaries of the old and new city centers (the new one is
also the main non-recreational employment center in Kunming). By
2019, the operational mileage of the metro in Kunming was 88.7 km,
ranking 23rd among 40 cities in China. Taking Kunming as the sample
can provide evidence for many second-tier cities in the stage of fast
metro construction.
We define the ratio of passenger flows during the pandemic (Feb
2020) to that before the pandemic (Nov 2019) as ratio A, and the ratio
after the pandemic (May 2020) to that before the pandemic (Nov 2019)
as ratio B. The normalized ratio A and B are divided into five equal parts
by the equal interval classification, and geo-visualized in the form of
choropleth maps in two images respectively. Both the size and color of
the circles represent the ratios. The time periods were chosen for several
reasons. First, the absence of holidays throughout November 2019 could
depict the normal state of Kunming. Second, Kunming restricted people's
movement to the greatest extent from February 5, 2020, to March 1
(From February 1st to 21st, only seven metro stations were operational).
Moreover, the local government encouraged people to resume their
normal life in April and metro travel revived rapidly in May 2020.1
Metro passenger flow data were obtained from the metro smart card
data of Kunming Metro Group Co.

* Corresponding author at: The Center for Modern Chinese City Studies, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China; The School of Urban and Regional
Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.
E-mail address: haoranyang0119@126.com (H. Yang).
1
May Day (May 1st to 3rd) is a statutory holiday in China but without a significant increase of people in 2020.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2022.103420
Received 25 March 2022; Received in revised form 4 July 2022; Accepted 12 August 2022
Available online 17 August 2022
0966-6923/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Q. Zhang and H. Yang Journal of Transport Geography 104 (2022) 103420

Fig. 1. Changes of metro passenger flows in Kunming during and after the pandemic.

2
Q. Zhang and H. Yang
3. Result
3.1. Stations of old city, new city, and non-city center areas
In Fig. 1, the mean value of stations' ratio A in the new city center
(0.254) was higher than that in the old city center (0.209) but similar to
that in non-city center areas (0.236). The reason for these differences
may be due to the new city center being mainly non-recreational
employment-based, and that some people still chose metro for
commuting during the pandemic. These differences also reflected that
people avoid metro travel to old city centers with the highest population
densities to reduce the risk of infection. Meanwhile, no significant dif­
ferences existed between the mean value of ratio B in new city centers
(0.528) and that in old city centers (0.58); however, both were lower
than that in non-city centers (0.674), indicating that after the pandemic,
people preferred metro traveling to less densely populated areas in case
of infection.
3.2. Stations being still operational and closed during the pandemic
To understand the differences between stations being operational
and closed by administrative order during the pandemic, this study
analyzed not only the differences of ratio A and B between operational
and closed metro stations during the pandemic, but also that among
operational ones.
In Fig. 1, the mean value of ratio A in operational stations during the
pandemic was 0.840, which was much higher than that of others
(0.149). Station's passenger flows were largely affected by administra­
tive orders rather than the spontaneous choice of travelers. Moreover,
contrary to expectations, the mean value of ratio B in operational sta­
tions during the pandemic was only 0.575, even lower than that of
others (0.638). This showed that people were more willing to use the
metro at these closed stations after the pandemic, than during the
pandemic.
Metro stations can further be divided into two types, based on land-
use types around the operational stations during the pandemic: transfer
stations (including bus and train stations for inter-city travel) and job-
residence stations (residential and commercial land account for more
than 70% of the 800-m buffer area around the station).2 In Fig. 1, the
mean value of ratio A in transfer stations (0.813) was less than that of
job-residence stations (0.860). Meanwhile, the mean value of ratio B in
transfer stations (0.535) was also less than that of job-residence stations
(0.605), indicating that people would take the metro to the transfer
station for intercity travel during and after the pandemic (Wang et al.,
2021), and that the demand is less than that to job-residence stations.
2
Land use data from Kunming City Master Plan (2011− 2020).
Journal of Transport Geography 104 (2022) 103420
4. Conclusion
Based on passenger flow data, we found that in Kunming some
people still took the metro to the employment center during the
pandemic, largely for commuting purposes. Furthermore, during and
after the pandemic, people would avoid traveling to high population
density areas by metro to reduce the risk of infection. Solving this
concern may be an efficient way to promote the passenger flow of these
places.
In addition, the transportation department believed that operational
stations (transportation transfer and job-residence stations) were more
important than others (such as shopping or scenic stations) during the
pandemic. However, the higher ratio A and lower ratio B of operational
stations during the pandemic reflected that the administration did not
satisfy travel demand after the pandemic. Moreover, travel demand to
job-residence stations for commuting were greater than that to the
transfer stations for inter-city travel during and after the pandemic. In
the future, the transportation department should consider how to make
a comprehensive and rapid judgment on the performance evolution of
the metro system and the relevant intra-city commuting travel demand
when metro systems suffer a disturbance.
Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (42001123).
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Qinran Zhang: Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original
draft, Visualization. Haoran Yang: Conceptualization, Supervision,
Methodology, Resources, Writing – review & editing, Funding
acquisition.
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