TRAVEL MODE CHOICE BEHAVIOR OF SCHOOL-GOING CHILDREN IN KHULNA CITY

Abstract

School-going children's trips play an essential role in transport planning. The change in transport mode choice to school might look insignificant, but it contributes to a great extent to growing transportation. Children's mode choice behavior has dramatically shifted from active modes, mainly walking, to non-active modes over the last few years. This research analyzes the influential factors affecting travel mode choice for school travelers in Khulna City. A multinomial logit model was developed for school trip makers. The results show that majority of the children ride motorized rickshaws on school trips. With the increase in travel cost and travel time, the odds of choosing the selected mode decrease. The findings revealed that female children are more likely to choose a car over other modes of transportation than male students. Children from higher-income households are more likely to use a car than any other income group. Compared to children from higher-income backgrounds, those from lower-income families were significantly more likely to walk to and from school. Regarding parents' perceptions of traffic safety, if parents perceived their neighborhood to be safe for children, children were also more likely to walk to school. The findings of this research also show that active travel, e.g., walking, is associated with the environmental characteristics (walking and safe environment, heavy traffic volume) of walking routes. This information should be taken into account when policy-making and school plans to enhance the safety of children walking to and from school.