01589770

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2586-08

The use of active modes of travel in school trips has sharply declined for a number of reasons, some of which are rooted in urban design, location of schools, and parental reservations. Thus, policy makers are keen to find practical ways to promote active modes of travel, particularly walking. This study was an effort to determine a tolerable walking distance for school trips and identify factors that made walking trips more reasonable for students. In the vein of understanding the tolerable walking distance, a two-step framework encompassing a random utility method and a hazard-based model was introduced. This framework was applied to a set of data that were collected from middle and high school students in the city of Tehran, Iran. The framework was intended to find a more accurate estimate of tolerable walking distance in school trips by addressing data censorship problems. The hazard-based model showed that 85% of students failed to walk when their travel distance exceeded 1,900 m. In Western countries, some studies have found this distance to be around 1,500 m. This study found girls were less likely to walk compared with boys. Furthermore, safety, time, and comfort of the trip turned out to be influential in parental objections, such that they decrease the critical walking distance by 18%, 13%, and 11%, respectively.

01595162

16-6887

English

pp 72–82

2016

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309441322

Print

Figures (6) ; References (34) ; Tables (4)

Mode choice; Pedestrians; School trips; Students; Urban design; Walking distance

Tehran (Iran)

Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 6:59PM

• Adaptive Walk Intervals
• Analysis of Road User Behavior and Safety During New York City’s Summer Streets Program
• Countdown Pedestrian Signals With and Without the Flashing Hand: Field Study
• Effect of Distractions on a Pedestrian’s Waiting Behavior at Traffic Signals: Observational Study
• Effectiveness of Changes in Street Layout and Design for Reducing Barriers to Walking
• Facility-Demand Models of Peak Period Pedestrian and Bicycle Traffic: Comparison of Fully Specified and Reduced-Form Models
• Multiobjective Evaluation of Midblock Crosswalks on Urban Streets Based on TOPSIS and Entropy Methods
• Panic That Spreads Sociobehavioral Contagion in Pedestrian Evacuations
• Pedestrian Crosswalk Safety at Nonsignalized Crossings During Nighttime: Use of Thermal Video Data and Surrogate Safety Measures
• Pedestrian Gap Acceptance Behavior in Street Designs with Elements of Shared Space
• Road User Behaviors at Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons
• Road, Traffic, and Human Factors of Pedestrian Crossing Behavior: Integrated Choice and Latent Variables Models
• Variables Influencing Efficacy of Gateway In-Street Sign Configuration on Yielding at Crosswalks