School Trips: Effects of Urban Form and Distance on Travel Mode

Evaluation of Safe Routes to School Programs: Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Parental Decision-Making

“…However, Schlossberg et al (2006) caution that urban form is only one factor in the decision-making process and also that urban form measures seem to be more related to suitability for walking than cycling, suggesting that other influences may be at work on decision to cycle.…”

“…Some studies have found other interesting influences on travel choice, such as the weight of a child's backpack (Schlossberg, Greene, Phillips, Johnson, & Parker, 2006), but these findings are not as prevalent in the literature. This may reflect the availability of information in the data sets, such as the national travel survey, used for many these studies, rather than the relative importance of some of these other factors.…”

“…For example, Schlossberg et al (2006) surveyed parents of children at four Oregon middle schools and found that parents have "compelling reasons for driving their children to school that are unrelated to urban form or distance" (Schlossberg et al, 2006), p. 344). This illustrates how a child's travel mode choice is very much a part of the household decision-making process (Black et al, 2001).…”

“…Household trip interdependencies, especially the linkage between trips to school and work (Black et al, 2001) often play a large role in the decision. For example, Schlossberg et al (Schlossberg et al, 2006) found that the ease of dropping child off on way to work was cited by 41% of parents surveyed who drove their kids to school. Earlier work by (Bradshaw, 1995) also found that the possibility of linking the school journey with the trip to work influenced whether children travel to school by car.…”

“…Distance to school is a major deterrent to walking or cycling to school (CDC, 2002), (DiGuiseppi et al, 1998); (Dellinger, 2002); (Ewing, Schroeer, & Greene, 2004a); (McDonald, 2007a); (Schlossberg et al, 2006); (Yarlagadda & Srinivasan, 2007). Children living less than one mile from school are more like to walk or bicycle to (Kweon, Shin, Folzenlogen, & Kim, 2006); (Dellinger, 2002); (Ewing et al, 2004a); (McMillan, 2003); (Schlossberg et al, 2006); (A.…”