Children’s travel to school: satisfaction,current mood,and cognitive performance

We investigate whether travel mode, travel time, and activities during travel influence children’s satisfaction with their travel to school, their current mood, and their cognitive performance after arriving at school. A sample of 344 children (165 girls) between the ages of 10 and 15 years were recruited at five public schools in Värmland County, Sweden. Directly after arriving at school, the children rated how they felt on two scales ranging from very sad to very happy and from very tired to very alert, filled out the Satisfaction with Travel Scale adapted for children (STS-C), reported details about their journeys, and took a word-fluency test. The results for STS-C showed that traveling by school bus and walking or cycling was experienced as having a higher quality than traveling by car. Children who engaged in conversation during their journeys reported a higher quality and more positive feelings than children who were engaged in solitary activities during their journeys. A shorter journey was experienced as having a higher quality and resulting in more positive feelings. Children traveling for longer durations performed better in the word-fluency test if using their smartphones or doing a combination of activities during their journeys.     

A joint flexible econometric model system of household residential location and vehicle fleet composition/usage choices

Modeling the interaction between the built environment and travel behavior is of much interest to transportation planning professionals due to the desire to curb vehicular travel demand through modifications to built environment attributes. However, such models need to take into account self-selection effects in residential location choice, wherein households choose to reside in neighborhoods and built environments that are conducive to their lifestyle preferences and attitudes. This phenomenon, well-recognized in the literature, calls for the specification and estimation of joint models of multi-dimensional land use and travel choice processes. However, the estimation of such model systems that explicitly account for the presence of unobserved factors that jointly impact multiple choice dimensions is extremely complex and computationally intensive. This paper presents a joint GEV-based logit regression model of residential location choice, vehicle count by type choice, and vehicle usage (vehicle miles of travel) using a copula-based framework that facilitates the estimation of joint equations systems with error dependence structures within a simple and flexible closed-form analytic framework. The model system is estimated on a sample derived from the 2000 San Francisco Bay Area Household Travel Survey. Estimation results show that there is significant dependency among the choice dimensions and that self-selection effects cannot be ignored when modeling land use-travel behavior interactions.     

Modeling residential sorting effects to understand the impact of the built environment on commute mode choice

This paper presents an examination of the significance of residential sorting or self selection effects in understanding the impacts of the built environment on travel choices. Land use and transportation system attributes are often treated as exogenous variables in models of travel behavior. Such models ignore the potential self selection processes that may be at play wherein households and individuals choose to locate in areas or built environments that are consistent with their lifestyle and transportation preferences, attitudes, and values. In this paper, a simultaneous model of residential location choice and commute mode choice that accounts for both observed and unobserved taste variations that may contribute to residential self selection is estimated on a survey sample extracted from the 2000 San Francisco Bay Area household travel survey. Model results show that both observed and unobserved residential self selection effects do exist; however, even after accounting for these effects, it is found that built environment attributes can indeed significantly impact commute mode choice behavior. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the model findings for policy planning.

Quantifying the transport-related impacts of parental school choice in England

School travel is becoming increasingly car-based and this is leading to many environmental and health implications for children all over the world. One of several reasons for this is that journey to school distances have increased over time. This is a trend that has been reinforced in some countries by the adoption of so-called ‘school choice’ policies, whereby parents can apply on behalf of their child(ren) to attend any school, and not only the school they live closest to. This paper examines the traffic and environmental impacts of the school choice policy in England. It achieves this by analysing School Census data from 2009 from the Department for Education. Multinomial logit modelling and mixed multinomial logit modelling are used to illustrate the current travel behaviour of English children in their journey to school and examine how there can be a significant reduction in vehicle miles travelled, CO₂ emissions and fuel consumption if the ‘school choice’ policy is removed. The model shows that when school choice was replaced by a policy where each child only travelled to their ‘nearest school’ several changes occurred in English school travel. Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) by motorised transport fell by 1 % for car travel and 10 % for bus travel per day. The reduction in vehicle miles travelled could lead to less congestion on the roads during the morning rush hour and less cars driving near school gates. Mode choice changed in the modelled scenario. Car use fell from 32 to 22 %. Bus use fell from 12 to 7 %, whilst NMT saw a rise of 17 %. With more children travelling to school by walking or cycling the current epidemic of childhood obesity could also be reduced through active travel.     

Understanding neighbourhood design impact on travel behaviour: An application of structural equations model to a British metropolitan data

The objective of this study is to explore whether changes in neighbourhood characteristics bring about changes in travel choice. Residential self-selection is a concern in the connections between land-use and travel behaviour. The recent literature suggests that a longitudinal structural equations modelling (SEM) approach can be a powerful tool to assess the importance of neighbourhood characteristics on travel behaviour as opposed to the attitude-induced residential self-selection. However, the evidence to date is limited to particular geographical areas and evidence from one country might not be transferrable to another because of differences in land-use patterns and land-use policies. The paper is to address the gap by extending the evidence using British data. The case study is based on the metropolitan area of Tyne and Wear, North East of England, UK. A SEM is applied to 219 respondents who reported residential relocation. The results identify that neighbourhood characteristics do influence travel behaviour after controlling for self-selection. For instance, the more people are exposed to public transport access, the more likely they drive less. Neighbourhood characteristics also impact through their influence on car ownership. A social environment with vitality also reduces the amount of private car travel. These findings suggest that land-use policies at neighbourhood level can play an important role in reducing driving.     

Continuous approximation models for mixed load school bus routing

School bus routing is a complex and expensive transportation problem for many public school districts. Typical school bus routes serve a single school, but mixed load school bus routes carry students for more than one school at the same time. A mixed load policy reduces the number of stops and distance to pick up and drop off children, but it can increase travel distance by visiting multiple schools. This paper provides a general strategic analysis using continuous approximation models to assess the conditions under which mixed loading is likely to be beneficial. We also present a case study for a semi-rural Missouri school district to illustrate the application of the models in practice. Results show that mixed load routing is more beneficial for larger districts, when a large percentage of bus stops are shared by students of different schools, and when schools are closer together.     

The relationship between the built environment and nonwork travel: A case study of Northern California

Many studies have found that residents living in suburban neighborhoods drive more and walk less than their counterparts in traditional neighborhoods. This evidence supports the advocacy of smart growth strategies to alter individuals’ travel behavior. However, the observed differences in travel behavior may be more of a residential choice than a travel choice. Applying the seemingly unrelated regression approach to a sample from Northern California, we explored the relationship between the residential environment and nonwork travel frequencies by auto, transit, and walk/bicycle modes, controlling for residential self-selection. We found that residential preferences and travel attitudes (self-selection) significantly influenced tripmaking by all three modes, and also that neighborhood characteristics (the built environment and its perception) retained a separate influence on behavior after controlling for self-selection. Both preferences/attitudes and the built environment itself played a more prominent role in explaining the variation in non-motorized travel than for auto and transit travel. Taken together, our results suggest that if cities use land use policies to offer options to drive less and use transit and non-motorized modes more, many residents will tend to do so.     

Do organized leisure activities for children encourage car-use?

Unlike school trips, the leisure activities of children and transport to these activities have received relatively little attention. Organized activities have increased and the immediate neighbourhood is not always the most appropriate or desirable area to play in or carry out various leisure activities. This paper presents findings from a nationwide survey in Norway that focus on children’s mobility. The results suggesting that a large proportion of children 6–12 years participate in organized leisure activities – sporting pursuits and music being the most popular and car is the main transport mode to these activities. The car share is higher than for school trips. The analysis indicates that children, particularly in these age groups, have parents with at least one car and who use the car for most purposes. Families who live in the larger cities have less access to a car than families living in other places, and this is reflected in the transport mode when children are escorted to leisure activities. Although distance to activities and children’s age are important for car-use, parents travel habits also have an impact on mode choice for these purposes.     

Incorporating the extended theory of planned behavior in a school travel mode choice model: a case study of Shaoxing,China

Travel to and from school can have social, economic, and environmental implications for students and their parents. Therefore, understanding school travel mode choice behavior is essential to find policy-oriented approaches to optimizing school travel mode share. Recent research suggests that psychological factors of parents play a significant role in school travel mode choice behavior and the Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model has been used to test the effect of psychological constructs on mode choice behavior. However, little research has used a systematic framework of behavioral theory to organize these psychological factors and investigate their internal relationships. This paper proposes an extended theory of planned behavior (ETPB) to delve into the psychological factors caused by the effects of adults’ cognition and behavioral habits and explores the factors’ relationship paradigm. A theoretical framework of travel mode choice behavior for students in China is constructed. We established the MIMIC model that accommodates latent variables from ETPB. We found that not all the psychological latent variables have significant effects on school travel mode choice behavior, but habit can play an essential role. The results provide theoretical support for demand policies for school travel.     

Traveler route choice: Travel time implications of improved information and adaptive decisions

The Wardrop user equilibrium model states that travelers choose the fastest available route and always choose the same route on repeated trips. However, travelers are not always capable of choosing the fastest route, and if travel time is uncertain, they may acquire information on the day of travel that helps to select a better route. Thus, travelers can reduce their travel time over the Wardrop “optimum” by selecting routes adaptively. The focus of this paper is to find the most promising approach for improving actual transit route choice through providing better traveler information. Actual and ideal travel time were estimated for each of six information scenarios, ranging from one where travelers use transit maps, to one where travelers use adaptive route choice, and to the hypothetical situation referred to as perfect information. Travelers using maps and travelers using maps and schedules took significantly longer than ideally possible on an experimental trip (24% longer with maps, 42% longer with maps and schedules). Ideal travel time under perfect information was 49% less than actual travel time with no information, and 6% less than that of the best non-adaptive decision rule. Time adaptive route choice resulted in no travel time reduction. The potential travel time improvement from giving travelers more information was not as great as that from making information more understandable. Adaptive route choice did not offer great potential on the studied trip. To be effective there must be several nearly equal route options, and trips must involve transfers, which excludes most travel on transit today.     

The relationship between non-motorized mode choice and the local physical environment

By estimating multinomial choice models, this paper examines the relationship between travel mode choice and attributes of the local physical environment such as topography, sidewalk availability, residential density, and the presence of walking and cycling paths. Data for student and staff commuters to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill are used to illustrate the relationship between mode choice and the objectively measured environmental attributes, while accounting for typical modal characteristics such as travel time, access time, and out-of-pocket cost. Results suggest that jointly the four attributes of the local physical environment make significant marginal contributions to explaining travel mode choice. In particular, the estimates reveal that local topography and sidewalk availability are significantly associated with the attractiveness of non-motorized modes. Point elasticities are provided and recommendations given regarding the importance of incorporating non-motorized modes into local transportation planning and in the study of how the built environment influences travel behavior.     

Factors affecting children’s journeys to school: a joint escort-mode choice model

A child’s mode of travelling to school is influenced by, or dependent on, parental choices. Thus, an increasing proportion of car trips may reflect parental choices and constraints. Whether a parent can escort their children to school may depend on their scheduling and spatial constraints, e.g., work schedule and job location in relation to home and school locations. This research aims to understand the effect of household bundling constraints on a child’s escort-mode choice. In this study, school trip data are drawn from the 2001 SCAG (Southern California Association of Governments) Post Census Regional Household Travel Survey. The study area is the five-county Los Angeles region. Our findings show that the parents’, especially the mother’s, increased working hours and more distant job locations result in an increased likelihood of several alternative escort-mode choices. Mothers who work longer hours and further away from home are less likely to chauffeur their children. These trips have been substituted by alternative escort choices such as independent travel and being escorted by fathers, or alternative mode choices such as active commuting and busing. The effect of increased working hours may be offset by the option of flexible working hours, which allows parents to arrange more escort trips. This study elucidates an important aspect in explaining children’s changing mode choice in journeys to school and sheds light on current policy efforts in reducing children’s car dependency.     

Preferences for shared autonomous vehicles

Shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs) could provide inexpensive mobility on-demand services. In addition, the autonomous vehicle technology could facilitate the implementation of dynamic ride-sharing (DRS). The widespread adoption of SAVs could provide benefits to society, but also entail risks. For the design of effective policies aiming to realize the advantages of SAVs, a better understanding of how SAVs may be adopted is necessary. This article intends to advance future research about the travel behavior impacts of SAVs, by identifying the characteristics of users who are likely to adopt SAV services and by eliciting willingness to pay measures for service attributes. For this purpose, a stated choice survey was conducted and analyzed, using a mixed logit model. The results show that service attributes including travel cost, travel time and waiting time may be critical determinants of the use of SAVs and the acceptance of DRS. Differences in willingness to pay for service attributes indicate that SAVs with DRS and SAVs without DRS are perceived as two distinct mobility options. The results imply that the adoption of SAVs may differ across cohorts, whereby young individuals and individuals with multimodal travel patterns may be more likely to adopt SAVs. The methodological limitations of the study are also acknowledged. Despite a potential hypothetical bias, the results capture the directionality and relative importance of the attributes of interest.     

Place happiness: its constituents and the influence of emotions and subjective importance on activity type and destination choice

The way in which a person organizes his or her day, both temporally and spatially, is a highly important matter to travel behavior and travel demand modeling. Many times, the focus of these models is to accurately predict the “where” and “when”, without paying adequate attention to the “why.” The participation in activities, and therefore the selection of a place for these activities has been recently discussed within the framework of subjective well being. The motivation of happiness can be used to understand how and why people make the choices that they do. Many different criteria are used by individuals in the selection of destinations. These criteria range from attributes such as distance and cost, to attributes such as comfort, security and social aspects in determining the most rewarding destinations. Aspects contributing to a rewarding experience can also be viewed as those decision criteria that lead to the highest satisfaction. In this paper, several attributes of places and decision-making are explored for their potential to explain destination choices. First, a broader analysis of destination choice and criteria used helps us develop a geographic representation of attitudes and views regarding the area of Santa Barbara, California. Following this general evaluation of space, individual activity types are statistically analyzed in the importance different attributes play in the selection of a destination that leads to higher satisfaction.     

The role of socio-economic,built environment and psychological factors in parental mode choice for their children in an Iranian setting

This research investigated the role of parental psychological and socio-economic factors as well as built environment for the choice of their children’s (primary school pupils, aged 7–9 years) travel mode to school in Rasht, Iran. A total of 1078 questionnaires were distributed (return rate of 80 percent) among pupils in nine primary schools in January 2014. A mixed logit (ML) model was employed due to its ability to test heterogeneity among parents and also to determine its possible sources. Results of random coefficient ML modelling showed that several psychological, socio-economic and built environment characteristics were significant factors in parental mode choice. Only walking time perception to school had a significant random normal distribution coefficient and no other psychological and socio-economic variable had a random effect. Further investigation by random coefficient analysis showed that the possible source of household preference heterogeneity could be to own two or more cars. Regarding psychological variables, strong parental worry about their children walking alone to school had a negative impact on allowing them to walk to school. Parents who evaluated poor contextual and design preconditions for walking tended to choose school service more than private car and walking. Parents with stronger environmental personal norms were more willing to allow their children to walk. The findings suggest that infrastructural measures, such as sidewalk facilities, neighborhood security and safety, encourage parents to allow children to walk to school. Information campaigns targeting environmental norms may increase walking among pupils in an Iranian setting.     

The influence of (toll-related) travel costs in residential location decisions of households: A stated choice approach

In this paper, we investigate the impact of travel costs, in particular toll costs, on the residential location choice of households, using a stated choice survey. Within the stated choice experiment, car drivers that frequently face traffic congestion, traded-off several trip-related (including toll costs) and house/location-related factors in their decision where to locate. If we look at the influence of different variables, toll and fuel costs seem to be important. Respondents are more sensitive to travel costs (i.e. toll and fuel costs) than to equally high (monthly) housing costs. Travel time appears to play a less important role, as indicated by a low value of time (VOT). In addition, location-related factors, such as the type of location and the number of bedrooms, turn out to be important factors as well. It can be concluded that respondents generally speaking prefer to pay higher housing costs and accept longer travel times to avoid (high) travel costs. Finally, if we look at the difference in preferences in relation to toll and fuel cost, we can conclude that toll costs are valued more negatively than fuel costs, although the differences are small.     

The implications on willingness to pay of respondents ignoring specific attributes

Individuals processing the information in a stated choice experiment are typically assumed to evaluate each and every attribute offered within and between alternatives, and to choose their most preferred alternative. However, it has always been thought that some attributes are ignored in this process for many reasons, including a coping strategy to handle ones perception of the complexity of the choice task. Nonetheless, analysts typically proceed to estimate discrete choice models as if all attributes have influenced the outcome to some degree. The cognitive processes used to evaluate trade-offs are complex with boundaries often placed on the task to assist the respondent. These boundaries can include prioritising attributes and ignoring specific attributes. In this paper we investigate the implications of bounding the information processing task by attribute elimination through ignoring one or more attributes. Using a sample of car commuters in Sydney we estimate mixed logit models that assume all attributes are candidate contributors, and models that assume certain attributes are ignored, the latter based on supplementary information provided by respondents. We compare the value of travel time savings under the alternative attribute processing regimes. Assuming that all attributes are not ignored and duly processed, leads to estimates of parameters which produce significantly different willingness to pay (WTP) to that obtained when the exclusion rule is invoked.     

The impacts of built environment on home-based work and non-work trips: An empirical study from Iran

This paper aims to explore the impact of built environment attributes in the scale of one quarter-mile buffers on individuals’ travel behaviors in the metropolitan of Shiraz, Iran. In order to develop this topic, the present research is developed through the analysis of a dataset collected from residents of 22 neighborhoods with variety of land use features. Using household survey on daily activities, this study investigates home-based work and non-work (HBW and HBN) trips. Structural equation models are utilized to examine the relationships between land use attributes and travel behavior while taking into account socio-economic characteristics as the residential self-selection. Results from models indicate that individuals residing in areas with high residential and job density, and shorter distance to sub-centers are more interested in using transit and non-motorized modes. Moreover, residents of neighborhoods with mixed land uses tend to travel less by car and more by transit and non-motorized modes to non-work destinations. Nevertheless, the influences of design measurements such as street density and internal connectivity are mixed in our models. Although higher internal connectivity leads to more transit and non-motorized trips in HBW model, the impacts of design measurements on individuals travel behavior in HBN model are significantly in contrast with research hypothesis. Our study also shows the importance of individuals’ self-selection impacts on travel behaviors; individuals with special socio-demographic attributes live in the neighborhoods with regard to their transportation patterns. The findings of this paper reveal that the effects of built environment attributes on travel behavior in origins of trips do not exactly correspond with the expected predictions, when it comes in practice in a various study context. This study displays the necessity of regarding local conditions of urban areas and the inherent differences between travel destinations in integrating land use and transportation planning.     

Examination of relationships between urban form,household activities,and time allocation in the Atlanta Metropolitan Region

A substantial body of research is focused on understanding the relationships between socio-demographics, land-use characteristics, and mode specific attributes on travel mode choice and time-use patterns. Residential and commercial densities, inter-mixing of land uses, and route directness in conjunction with transportation performance characteristics interact to influence accessibility to destinations as well as time spent traveling and engaging in activities. This study uniquely examines the activity durations undertaken for out-of-home subsistence; maintenance, and discretionary activities. Also examined are total tour durations (summing all activity categories within a tour). Cross-sectional activities are obtained from household activity travel survey data from the Atlanta Metropolitan Region. Time durations allocated to weekdays and weekends are compared. The censoring and endogeneity between activity categories and within individuals are captured using multiple equations Tobit models.The analysis and modeling reveal that land-use characteristics such as net residential density and the number of commercial parcels within a kilometer of a residence are associated with differences in weekday and weekend time-use allocations. Household type and structure are significant predictors across the three activity categories, but not for overall travel times. Tour characteristics such as time-of-day and primary travel mode of the tours also affect traveler’s out-of-home activity-tour time-use patterns.     

Assessing traveler responsiveness to land and location based accessibility and mobility solutions

In this paper, a joint multinomial logit (MNL) model of residential location and vehicle availability choice is formulated and estimated using a sample of households from the San Francisco, CA area Metropolitan Transportation Commission's 1990 household travel survey. Subsequently, models of travel intensity (number of daily household trips and vehicle-miles traveled) are estimated as a function of household characteristics and of attributes derived from the joint residential location and auto availability choice model (number of vehicles, percent land developed). A policy test shows that reducing the cost of locating in the densest areas of the metropolitan area is likely to have only marginal impact on vehicle availability and household trip making.