An assessment of Qatari school students’ perspective towards using sustainable modes of transport to school

Abstract

Being a car dependent country traditionally, private cars are widely used for various trip purposes in State of Qatar including school trips. This paper assesses the factors affecting sustainable mode choices, walking or using school bus to/from school from school students’ perspective. A data of 2639 students from public schools was used to conduct the quantitative analysis. The results suggested that gender, age, and nationality were important demographic factors in determining mode choice to/from school. Further, the selection of school bus was dependent on general safety factors, policy of loading or unloading, service cost, dropoff/pickup points, and availability of driver assistant. Additionally, three obstacles limited school bus usage by students, which were long trip timing, unavailability of service, unsafe service, inconvenient time, and private or personal reasons. These results can be used to address students’ concerns/issues while planning and policy making which can help to increase school bus usage among school students and reduce reliance on private cars.