During the outbreak of COVID-19, people’s reliance on social media for pandemic-related information exchange, daily communications, and online professional interactions increased because of self-isolation and lockdown implementation. Most of the published research addresses the performance of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and measures on the issues impacted by COVID-19, such as health, education, and public safety; however, not much is known about the interplay between social media use and travel behaviors. This study aims to determine the effect of social media on human mobility before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, and its impact on personal vehicle and public transit use in New York City (NYC). Apple mobility trends and Twitter data are used as two data sources. The results indicate that Twitter volume and mobility trend correlations are negative for both driving and transit categories in general, especially at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in NYC. A significant time lag (13 days) between the online communication rise and mobility drop can be observed, thereby providing evidence of social networks taking quicker reactions to the pandemic than the transportation system. In addition, social media and government policies had different impacts on vehicular traffic and public transit ridership during the pandemic with varied performance. This study provides insights on the complex influence of both anti-pandemic measures and user-generated content, namely social media, on people’s travel decisions during pandemics. The empirical evidence can help decision-makers formulate timely emergency responses, prepare targeted traffic intervention policies, and conduct risk management in similar outbreaks in the future.

在COVID-19爆发期间，由于自我隔离和封锁的实施，人们对社交媒体进行与流行病相关的信息交流、日常沟通和在线专业互动的依赖增加了。大多数已发表的研究都涉及非药物干预措施 (NPI) 的表现以及针对受 COVID-19 影响的问题的措施，例如健康、教育和公共安全；然而，人们对社交媒体使用和旅行行为之间的相互作用知之甚少。本研究旨在确定社交媒体在 COVID-19 爆发前后对人员流动的影响，及其对纽约市 (NYC) 个人车辆和公共交通使用的影响。苹果移动趋势和 Twitter 数据作为两个数据源。结果表明，对于驾驶和交通类别而言，Twitter 流量和移动趋势总体呈负相关，特别是在纽约市 COVID-19 爆发之初。可以观察到在线通信增加和流动性下降之间存在显着的时间滞后（13天），从而提供了社交网络比交通系统对大流行病做出更快反应的证据。此外，社交媒体和政府政策对疫情期间的车辆交通和公共交通乘客量产生了不同的影响，表现也各不相同。这项研究提供了有关抗疫措施和用户生成内容（即社交媒体）对大流行期间人们旅行决策的复杂影响的见解。经验证据可以帮助决策者制定及时的应急响应，制定有针对性的交通干预政策，并在未来类似的疫情中进行风险管理。