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.     

Environmental equity in participation of the Clean Air School Bus Program: The case of New York State

The vast majority of American children rely on school buses for their daily trips to and from school, and almost all of these school buses operate on diesel fuel. Research has found that during their daily commute, children are exposed to unhealthy levels of diesel exhaust. We assess equity among school districts that chose to apply to the New York State Clean Air School Bus Program and those that did not. Binary logistic regression was employed to reveal the effects of demographics and other social economical factors on the choice of applying when controlling for other factors that are likely to affect a school district’s decision process. It was found that economic variables had a significant impact on the likelihood of a school district applying to the program.     

A systematic review of disability’s treatment in the active school travel and children’s independent mobility literatures

While various forms of social difference (e.g. gender, age, race/ethnicity, and class) have been engaged in the active school travel (AST) and children’s independent mobility (CIM) literatures, one form has gone largely unconsidered: disability. Disregard for disability within these literatures is troubling, as it leaves children’s experiences of disability associated with independent mobility and school travel unquestioned, which in turn helps to allow their experiences of exclusion to persist. This paper presents a systematic review of the AST and CIM literatures that was undertaken with a view to providing insight into three questions. (1) To what extent is disability considered in the literatures in comparison to other forms of social difference? (2) How is disability engaged? (3) How could disability be approached differently such that experiences of children (and their households) living with disability are better accounted for moving forward (e.g. provided with equitable travel/mobility options)? Following a detailed consideration of the systematic review process, this paper presents figures and tables showing the extent to which disability has been considered in the two literatures in relation to other forms of social difference. To show how transport scholars and others are engaging disability, 29 studies were identified for in-depth, qualitative review. These studies are summarized and then discussed in relation to their geographic focus, the forms of disability they considered, their treatment of children’s perspective and agency, and the disability perspectives they employed. It is suggested that disability and its relationships with other forms of social difference, as well as the largely unquestioned normalcy of children’s disability experiences, warrant further inquiry within the AST and CIM literatures. We propose that drawing upon a critical ableist studies perspective may be useful for any such inquiry due to its focus on ableism and normalcy, as well as its recognition of the complex intersectionality of disability experiences.     

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.     

Impacts of parental gender and attitudes on children’s school travel mode and parental chauffeuring behavior: results for California based on the 2009 National Household Travel Survey

Research has shown that parental attitudes are a significant predictor of children’s active commuting (walking or biking) to school. However, the impact of parental gender on parental attitudes, and the link between parental attitudes and the gender gap in parental chauffeuring behavior have not received much attention. This paper examines these questions by applying discrete choice models to California data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey while controlling for a wide range of variables characterizing parents, their children, households, schools, and the local built environment. Our results, conveyed via odds ratios, show that mothers are more likely to have higher concerns about traffic volume, which in turn reduces the likelihood that their children will walk or bike to school. Moreover, even though parental attitudes significantly influence parental chauffeuring behavior, their ability to explain the gender chauffeuring gap is limited. When holding equal concerns, mothers are still more likely than fathers to chauffeur their children to school. Finally, while distance to school and several land use measures (e.g., population density, urbanization level, and percentage of renters) are statistically significant, the impact of an objective measure of walkability is quite small. These results suggest that interventions targeting an increase in children’s walking and biking to school should focus on the concerns of mothers, especially as they relate to traffic characteristics.     

How to obtain a healthy journey to school

Danish children walk and cycle a lot and at the same time have one of the best child road safety records in the western part of world. Based on several studies, the paper describes how Denmark has obtained a good child road safety and why Danish children choose to walk and cycle. Child road safety has predominantly been improved due to higher seat belt use and many implemented local safety measures such as campaigns and physical safe routes to school projects. It is mostly safe routes to school projects that include speed reducing measures and signalisation of junctions that are successful. The distance from home to school is an important factor in children’s transport mode choice. Since about half of Danish children have less than 1.5 km to school the decentralised school structure with many fairly small schools is an important reason to the many walking and bicycle journeys. Road design and motorised traffic volumes do influence children’s mode choice, but to a rather limited extent.     

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.     

Investigating the subjective and objective factors influencing teenagers’ school travel mode choice – An integrated choice and latent variable model

In this paper, we apply Bhat and Dubey’s (2014) new probit-kernel based Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) model formulation to analyze children’s travel mode choice to school. The new approach offered significant advantages, as it allowed us to incorporate three latent variables with a large data sample and with 10 ordinal indicators of the latent variables, and still estimate the model without any convergence problems. The data used in the empirical analysis originates from a survey undertaken in Cyprus in 2012. The results underscore the importance of incorporating subjective attitudinal variables in school mode choice modeling. The results also emphasize the need to improve bus and walking safety, and communicate such improvements to the public, especially to girls and women and high income households. The model application also provides important information regarding the value of investing in bicycling and walking infrastructure.     

Handbook guidance promoting a safe journey for children with disabilities – An evaluation

Previous research has shown that both mobility and safety for children with disabilities are reduced, due to several reasons, one of them being lack of adequate and focused information on safety measures to be taken. A handbook was created and disseminated for free to parents of children with disabilities, organised in parental organisations. The handbook was evaluated from a user perspective, by a parental questionnaire survey. The results confirmed the parents’ lack of information and further valued the handbook as useful. The parents stated the benefits of the handbook to be largest in contacts with drivers of school transportation and special transport systems. Future development and research should focus on: (i) “early intervention” by occupational therapists and paediatricians by providing the parents the handbook at the clinic, (ii) dissemination strategies towards parents not being members of the parental interest organisations, and (iii) translation and evaluation of the handbook for parents not having Swedish as their native language.     

Parents’ perspectives on using autonomous vehicles to enhance children’s mobility

Prior research has estimated the impact of an autonomous vehicle (AV) environment on the mobility of underserved populations such as adult non-drivers. What is currently unknown is the impact of AVs on enhancing the mobility of children who are also mobility disadvantaged, as child passengers are likely part of AV ridership scenarios in the perceivable future. To address this question, our study collected perceived benefits and concerns of AVs from a US convenience sample of parents whose children relied on them for mobility. We found that parents’ intentions to travel in AV and their technology readiness as well as parent (sex, residence area) and child (age, restraint system) demographic profiles were important determinants of potential AV acceptance and impact. In addition, two groups of potential AV users emerged from the data: the curious and the practical. This study addresses a gap in the literature by assessing parents’ perspectives on using AVs to transport children. The results have great potentials to guide the design of mobility features, safety evaluations, and implementation policies, as a decline in public interest in AVs has been recently documented.     

Children’s mode choice for the school trip: the role of distance and school location in walking to school

Rising levels of childhood obesity in the United States and a 75% decline in the proportion of children walking to school in the past 30 years have focused attention on school travel. This paper uses data from the US Department of Transportation’s 2001 National Household Travel Survey to analyze the factors affecting mode choice for elementary and middle school children. The analysis shows that walk travel time is the most policy-relevant factor affecting the decision to walk to school with an estimated direct elasticity of −0.75. If policymakers want to increase walking rates, these findings suggest that current policies, such as Safe Routes to School, which do not affect the spatial distribution of schools and residences will not be enough to change travel behavior. The final part of the paper uses the mode choice model to test how a land use strategy—community schools—might affect walking to school. The results show that community schools have the potential to increase walking rates but would require large changes from current land use, school, and transportation planning practices.

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.     

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.     

Assessing the impact of the National Cycle Network and physical activity lifestyle on cycling behaviour in England

This paper examines the association between access to National Cycle Network (NCN) routes in England and an individual’s cycling behaviour whilst accounting for their broader physical activity lifestyle and controlling for their socio-economic circumstances. It identifies a positive association between access to these routes and the total minutes of any form of cycling, and the number of days that cycling takes place primarily for recreational purposes. The broader physical activity of individuals also has a positive association with cycling. Walking appears most likely to be complementary to non-recreational cycling, whilst participation in sport with all forms of cycling, but not with longer duration utilitarian trips. The research also indicates that access to NCN routes has the potential to increase such cycling further, with the exception of longer utilitarian trips, as does a more physically active lifestyle, particularly walking. The main policy implications of the research are to recognise that cycling is intrinsically linked to other physical activity, notably, walking, but that the NCN routes measured in this study primarily support longer duration recreational activity, which is also affected by sporting activity. This suggests that one avenue for achieving the health benefits of cycling may be through promoting NCN routes to harness a more generally active lifestyle and particularly in leisure, whilst sustainability may be further promoted through being linked more to other active travel such as walking. There is a therefore a need to exploit the potential of such NCN route provision as part of this promotion.     

A Review of the Evolution of Shared (Street) Space Concepts in Urban Environments

Abstract

This paper aims to clearly establish the origin and evolution of the shared space concept from a New Zealand perspective by reviewing the literature in the disciplines of both urban design and transportation engineering. The review process involves investigating the use and function of a public road space in the context of the changing of public expectations and how this can relate to a number of interconnected street design approaches (e.g. traffic calming and self-explaining roads (SERs)). These approaches have been used to minimise the influence of motor vehicles since the beginning of the automobile era. The shared space concept, when applied in public road environments in activity centres, has increasingly been embraced by urban planners, transportation engineers and regulatory agencies. A shared space diverges from a conventional road where all road users are encouraged to legitimately occupy the same road space with little physical separation. To achieve this in a safe and efficient manner, the design aims to reduce the dominance of the motor vehicle by promoting pedestrian and cycling activity and utilising the road space as a ‘place’ in addition to its ‘transport’ mobility and access purposes. Given the fundamental conceptual differentiation between a traffic-calmed street and a shared space, the paper argues that there are certain design elements, constituting a shared space, and without them, it would be difficult for a public street to function as a genuine shared space for all road users.     

Street characteristics to encourage children to walk

An experiment tested whether physical disorder affected low to moderate income African–American children’s choice of street to walk on and their parents’ choice of a street for them to walk on. The experiment used an innovative desktop simulation in which 32 fourth and fifth grade African–American children and 30 parents viewed and explored pairs of virtual walk-through streets manipulated on disorder (across three contexts and two other street and sidewalk characteristics) and picked from each pair the one to walk on (child) or for the child to walk on (parent). Each participant was asked to report the reasons for the choices. The analysis revealed that children and their parents were more likely to walk (or have the child walk) on streets lower in disorder. Reported reasons for choices confirmed the importance of physical disorder in affecting walking choices. Low-cost improvements in order may make streets more desirable for recreational walking.     

A fuzzy logic-genetic algorithm approach to modelling public transport users’ risk-taking behaviour

This paper seeks to determine the effects of uncertainty in out-of-vehicle times on route choice. Data were collected at two key interchanges in Auckland, New Zealand. Previous work modelled the data using a manual approach to fuzzy logic. This study extends that work by automating the process through defining a black-box function to match the survey data, then employing a genetic algorithm to fine-tune the fuzzy logic model. Results show that automation and the genetic algorithm improve the model’s capability to more accurately predict ridership. The tuning of the membership functions is conducted twice, first using initial fuzzy rules and again after the fuzzy rules have been adjusted to reduce disparity between the output and survey data. The calibrated membership functions provided for operational (transfer waiting and walking time and delay) and physical attributes (safety and seat availability) can be used by practitioners to determine an estimated ridership.     

Eco approaching at an isolated signalized intersection under partially connected and automated vehicles environment

This research proposed an eco-driving system for an isolated signalized intersection under partially Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) environment. This system prioritizes mobility before improving fuel efficiency and optimizes the entire traffic flow by optimizing speed profiles of the connected and automated vehicles. The optimal control problem was solved using Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle. Simulation-based before and after evaluation of the proposed design was conducted. Fuel consumption benefits range from 2.02% to 58.01%. The CO₂ emissions benefits range from 1.97% to 33.26%. Throughput benefits are up to 10.80%. The variations are caused by the market penetration rate of connected and automated vehicles and v/c ratio. No adverse effect is observed. Detailed investigation reveals that benefits are significant as long as there is CAV and they grow with CAV’s market penetration rate (MPR) until they level off at about 40% MPR. This indicates that the proposed eco-driving system can be implemented with a low market penetration rate of connected and automated vehicles and could be implemented in a near future. The investigation also reveals that the proposed eco-driving system is able to smooth out the shock wave caused by signal controls and is robust over the impedance from conventional vehicles and randomness of traffic. The proposed system is fast in computation and has great potential for real-time implementation.     

Children—automobility's immobilized others?

Within the social science literature on the so‐called modernity–mobility nexus, children, women, the elderly, poor people and the disabled are described as the immobilized ‘others’ of automobility. They are seen as powerless victims of the hegemony of the car, of the unequally distributed access to mobility and of the unequally distributed negative consequences of an increasingly faster and wider ranging automobility. The present paper focuses on children and questions whether there is any empirical support for this rather rigid theoretically driven construction of children's identity. With this objective, eight in‐depth interviews with children about their perception of themselves as travellers were conducted. The children saw themselves as both suffering and benefiting from automobility, as well as being both immobilized and mobilized. Thus, children are not necessarily automobility's others in the sense of a suffering, victimized or immobilized other altogether; they are also coping and partaking members of the automobile society. This is an important conclusion, since no matter how well meaning the intentions of the adult community, children might benefit more from being perceived as active members of society—with rights equal to those of adults as participants in the further development of the automobile society—than of being restricted to the role of powerless, patronized victims, dependent on the grace of others.