Using an agent-based model to simulate children’s active travel to school

Yong Yang,Ana V Diez-Roux

doi:10.1186/1479-5868-10-67

Abstract

BackgroundDespite the multiple advantages of active travel to school, only a small percentage of US children and adolescents walk or bicycle to school. Intervention studies are in a relatively early stage and evidence of their effectiveness over long periods is limited. The purpose of this study was to illustrate the utility of agent-based models in exploring how various policies may influence children’s active travel to school.MethodsAn agent-based model was developed to simulate children’s school travel behavior within a hypothetical city. The model was used to explore the plausible implications of policies targeting two established barriers to active school travel: long distance to school and traffic safety. The percent of children who walk to school was compared for various scenarios.ResultsTo maximize the percent of children who walk to school the school locations should be evenly distributed over space and children should be assigned to the closest school. In the case of interventions to improve traffic safety, targeting a smaller area around the school with greater intensity may be more effective than targeting a larger area with less intensity.ConclusionsDespite the challenges they present, agent based models are a useful complement to other analytical strategies in studying the plausible impact of various policies on active travel to school.

Highlights

Despite the multiple advantages of active travel to school, only a small percentage of US children and adolescents walk or bicycle to school
Active travel to school (ATS) constitutes a substantial portion of children’s overall physical activity [1] and ATS is associated with higher overall physical activity [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
Research has identified a number of factors that are associated with ATS including the characteristics of children and families [5,10,17,18]

Summary

Introduction

Despite the multiple advantages of active travel to school, only a small percentage of US children and adolescents walk or bicycle to school. Despite the multiple merits associated with ATS, today fewer than 15% US children and adolescents walk or bicycle to school, compared to about 50% in 1969 [12]. Research has identified a number of factors that are associated with ATS including the characteristics of children and families [5,10,17,18] (such as age and fitness of the child, neighbourhood safety and traffic safety, and household transportation options), features of schools [5,10,19,20] (such as distance from the household, and school bus policy), and features of neighbourhoods [5,10,17,21,22] (such as urban form and social norms). Boys, Hispanic and African American children, children from lower SES families, and children attending public schools, living close to schools, and living in neighbourhoods with walking or bicycling friendly environments are more like to actively travel to school [23]

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