Trips to school are increasingly taken in automobiles. Smart growth and health advocates suggest that a better-designed built environment in a neighborhood can promote walking and biking to school and that children's walking and biking improve the environment, lower obesity, and increase physical activity. The effects of school variables on travel behavior, however, have rarely been documented. The objective of this research is to examine the impact of school location and characteristics on students’ choice of travel mode. The argument is that if the local school is good, then a child is more likely to attend it. The chance increases that the child will commute actively to a school within a short distance, all else equal. School trips from the 2001 Post Census Regional Household Travel Survey of the Los Angeles, California, region were analyzed in relation to school quality in the area of the traveler's origin (residence) and destination. Results revealed that for young travelers who attended kindergarten to sixth grade, school quality and residential environment had no significant effect on nonmotorized modes. In addition, school quality had little impact on mode choice. Nonetheless, the distance from home to the nearest high school significantly increased the probability that students who attended seventh to 12th grades would choose the bus over a private vehicle. A 10% increase in the distance from home to the nearest high school raised the probability of taking the bus by 2.86%, while an identical increase in residential density increased the probability of walking or biking by 1.09%.


    Access

    Download

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Effect of School Quality and Residential Environment on Mode Choice of School Trips


    Additional title:

    Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board


    Contributors:
    He, Sylvia (author)


    Publication date :

    2011-01-01




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    Mode Choice for School Trips

    Ermagun, Alireza / Rashidi, Taha Hossein / Lari, Zahra Ansari | Transportation Research Record | 2015


    Mode choice and travel distance joint models in school trips

    Ermagun, Alireza / Samimi, Amir | Online Contents | 2017


    Mode choice analysis of school trips using random forest technique

    Jinit J. M. D'Cruz / Anu P. Alex / V.S. Manju | DOAJ | 2022

    Free access

    Mode choice and travel distance joint models in school trips

    Ermagun, Alireza / Samimi, Amir | Online Contents | 2017