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Title:

Parental Influences on Children’s School Commute Choices

Accession Number:

01337228

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

In the United States, walking and bicycling to school has declined as more parents choose to drive their kids to and from school. While this is partly due to increased distances between school and home, research shows that one in two children living within a mile of school are driven to school. Besides distance, weather and safety, studies show that parental attitudes, perceptions, and time constraints affect school commute mode choice. However, little research has delved deeper to determine the specific factors that affect parents’ decisions and how programs to increase walking and biking to school can mitigate some of these factors. This paper reports on the findings of focus groups conducted with parents at four elementary schools in Portland Oregon to obtain detailed information on the factors that influence parents’ choice of travel mode for their child’s commute to and from school. While findings confirm that distance, weather and safety are indeed priorities, this study also found that travel mode often varied both by day of week and between the trip to and from school. In addition, it examined the differences between the travel patterns and parental influences at schools of lower and higher socio-economic status (SES) and found that convenience was the primary factor in commute decisions for parents at the higher SES schools and reported a greater variety of commute options, while convenience was less of a factor for parents at the lower SES schools, while car access, finances and work schedules played a more important role.

Monograph Accession #:

01329018

Report/Paper Numbers:

11-0919

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Weigand, Lynn
McDonald, Noreen

Pagination:

17p

Publication Date:

2011

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2011-1-23 to 2011-1-27
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

DVD

Features:

References (45) ; Tables (1)

Geographic Terms:

Portland (Oregon)

Subject Areas:

Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011 Paper #11-0919

Files:

TRIS, TRB

Created Date:

Feb 17 2011 5:37PM