Prof. Anthony Chen’s team conducted a before & after analysis to visualized the impact of the Covid-19 vaccine passport (VP) restrictions on the use of indoor public space on pedestrian accessibility to all 97 metro stations in Hong Kong.
Results show that vaccine passports have caused a 50% reduction in accessibility of two-thirds of stations for pedestrians without a vaccine passport (PwoVP). Particularly, PwoVP must walk 460 m longer to reach Kowloon (KWO) station; Tai Wo (TWO) and Ma On Shan (MOS) stations are inaccessible.
The findings can help to evaluate the effectiveness and fairness of long-term policies in restricting access to public spaces, such as the VP system.