School travel mode shift from driving to active school travel: an analysis based on SSBC

Abstract

The proportion of trips driving children to school has experienced a sharp increase throughout recent decades, which is accompanied by less physical activity among students, severe traffic congestion during peak hours, and extreme environmental pollution. This study aimed to test the Stage model of Self-regulated Behavioral Change (SSBC) to understand and explain parents’ decision-making process about children’s school travel mode shifting from car use to active school travel. A structural equation model and generalized ordinal logistic regression were used to test the parents’ intention change process. The results show that the model accounted for 94%, 77%, and 69% of the variance in goal intention, behavioral intention, and implementation intention, respectively. Habitual behavior of private vehicle use would, to some extent, hinder parents’ intentions to shift from driving to active school mode use.