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The outbreak of COVID-19 in China started at the end of December 2019. This led to a series of containment measurements to control the spread of COVID-19. Despite of the widely reported effects of these measures, inadequate attention has gone to their social impacts. The elderly, as one of the most susceptible populations, has experienced a considerable reduction in mobility. This paper explores the role mobility played and how the social environment influenced elderly mobility in the first 2 months of the COVID-19 outbreak. We surveyed 186 families with a total of 248 elderly people in Kunming. The results show that mobility improves the quality of daily living, such as access to grocery shopping, maintenance of outdoor activities for health cultivation and preserving social networks even during the pandemic. Four themes relating to social environment emerged from the data as elements influencing elderly mobility during the pandemic: social pressure, practice of the virtue of Xiao, the social norm of respecting the aged and the impacts of technological advances. Among them, the virtue of Xiao enabled the elderly to stay in place in the early phase of COVID-19 by fulfilling their needs for daily necessities and social interactions, whilst being less technology-savvy further excluded them socially by restraining them from restoring mobility after the lifting of travel restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 186 family interviews were conducted for survey design and result interpretation. • A three-wave cross-lagged model is developed. • The ease of using smartphone-based services dominantly influence transport equity. • Perceived accessibility to services is a sound indicator for transport equity. • New mobility services further excluded and marginalised disadvantaged populations. Individuals have experienced various degrees of accessibility loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may consequently influence transport equity. However, conventional measurements of accessibility cannot capture individual experiences and perceptions of accessibility. Moreover, since many daily necessities and services can only be acquired online during the pandemic, the ease of using smartphone-based services play an essential role in people's everyday lives. Therefore, this paper investigates the relationship between the ease of using smartphone-based services, perceived accessibility, and perceived transport equity during the pandemic. Based on 186 family interviews, a panel survey with 569 respondents was conducted monthly from February to October 2020 in Kunming, China, and a three-wave cross-lagged panel model was developed to understand the causal relationship between the three constructs. The results indicate that the ease of using smartphone-based services dominantly influence transport equity in the early phase of the pandemic, but its effect faded after the lifting of travel restrictions. Perceived accessibility to services appears a sound indicator for transport equity in the new normal, but perceived accessibility and transport equity are not strongly associated when staying at home is perceived as desirable. Moreover, we found that contemporary practices of smartphone-based new mobility services only favour those who already have convenient access to services and have further excluded and marginalised disadvantaged populations, which urgently require policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]