Active Travel Research Articles

Adolescents’ physical activity during and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic: a qualitative study exploring the experiences of young people living in the context of socioeconomic deprivation

BackgroundAdolescent physical activity levels are low and are shown to decline with age into adulthood. Emerging literature suggests these trends were exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic. We aimed to understand, from the perspective of adolescents living in deprived communities, whether the Covid-19 pandemic influenced their physical behaviour and explore their ideas for physical activity promotion moving forward.MethodsPurposive sampling was used to recruit older adolescents (13-18-year-old) living in one of the 20% most deprived areas in the UK, as defined by the UK Index of Multiple Deprivation. A mix of in-person and online one-to-one semi-structured interviews were conducted between July 2021- March 2022. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and anonymised. Data were imported into Nvivo software and analysed drawing on Braun and Clarke’s six phases of thematic analysis.ResultsThe sample consisted of 16 adolescents and included a mix of genders. The following themes were generated during the data analysis: (1) Physical activity behaviour in everyday life (prepandemic), (2) The impact of Covid-19 on physical activity (during) and (3) Young people’s ideas about physical activity promotion (moving forward). Participants described themselves as inactive, with their activity limited to active travel, informal activity and physical education. Experiences of the pandemic were largely negative, impacting participants’ physical and mental health. Ideas around physical activity promotion ranged from the individual to the societal level.ConclusionsOur findings suggest the Covid-19 pandemic had a major impact on young people living in the context of socioeconomic deprivation. Physical activity promotion efforts should focus on school-based opportunities and the provision of safe and low-cost opportunities in socioeconomically deprived areas. As we aim to build back from the Covid-19 pandemic, supporting young people living in socioeconomically deprived communities should be prioritised.

Understanding the interactions that children and young people have with their natural and built environments: A survey to identify targets for active travel behaviour change in Wales.

Active travel offers many societal benefits, including improving people's mental and physical health and minimising our impacts on the environment. Increasing active travel is particularly important amongst children and young people (CYP), who are building habits which they will carry into adulthood. Studies on active travel amongst CYP are limited, however, with most research focusing on adult participants or on adult perceptions of children. This study sought to understand CYP's interactions with the built and natural environment-and therefore their access to active travel-through the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model. With a stakeholder group representing local government, youth organisations and active travel organisations, we co-created two bilingual questionnaires-one for young people aged 12-16 years living in Wales and the other for parents of young people aged 12-16 years living in Wales. Both questionnaires collected information on behaviour and perceived capability, opportunity and motivation of CYP to engage with their natural and built environments. The questionnaires included a discrete choice experiment (DCE), which proposed a series of binary choice questions indicating preferences based on landscape, journey time and type of travel. A total of 124 questionnaires (38 young people and 86 parents) were returned for analysis. These data indicate that CYP's time spent outdoors is not dependent upon geography (rural/urban/suburban), season, or school holidays. There was a significant difference in capability, opportunity and motivation between parents and CYP, with parents over-estimating the psychological capability of CYP to engage outdoors. The preference data indicate that active travel is the favoured mode of transport, with both CYP and parents stating that they would increase travel time in order to travel actively. While this response is not consistent with respondent's day-to-day travel choices, it suggests that the limitations to active travel may be psychological capability and automatic motivation, rather than a lack of opportunity.

Understanding destination information cocoons and polarization of travel attitude and intention: How can travel experiences mitigate bias?

Extant research remains relatively silent on the polarizing attitudes stemming from large-scale conflict events, such as trade wars. Information cocoons, which highlight unilateral information, have been shown to amplify polarized opinions and behaviors. This paper aims to integrate mixed methods with social identity, system justification, and cognitive dissonance theories across four interrelated studies to understand the impact of conflict events and subsequent information cocoons on tourist decision-making. Study 1 leverages the elastic net synthetic control method to compare the actual Chinese tourist travel to the US with a predicted counterfactual scenario without the trade war. Studies 2 through 5, with 300, 423, 517, and 201 respondents respectively, examined tourists’ competing reasonings and approach-avoidance tendencies regarding information cocoons about destinations involved in the trade war. The findings deepen our understanding of how information cocoons amplify polarized thinking and behaviors, which can be partially mitigated by travel experiences to conflicting countries.

Exposure to useable green space and physical activity during active travel: A longitudinal GPS and accelerometer study before and after retirement

Green spaces may serve as population level interventions encouraging active travel. We examined the associations between exposure to useable green space (CORINE Land Cover categories) and physical activity during active travel (GPS and accelerometer) among late middle-aged participants from the Finnish Retirement and Aging study (n = 102). Greater proportion of useable green space was associated with higher physical activity during active travel on days off (+11 min/day per 1 SD increase in exposure) and on retirement days (+12 min/day), but not on workdays. Thus, it appears that in leisure time, people prefer to engage into active travel in green spaces.

Active travel in the university setting: Assessing the effects of social behavior, socioeconomics, and spatial location

University campuses are pooling efforts to promote active mobility to reduce their negative impacts on the urban environment, which is significantly influenced by the overreliance on motorized modes of transport. Providing sufficient and safe accessibility conditions for active travel has been highlighted as a crucial strategy for transforming campuses into more livable and sustainable areas in cities. To further explore the likelihood of active mobility uptake at university campuses, this study explored university students’ mobility patterns over time, examining the role of social behavior, socioeconomics, and spatial location factors. The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto, Greater Oporto, Portugal, provided the empirical focus for this research. The data analyzed were acquired through surveys of representative samples and spatial analysis over the academic years of 2012, 2017, and 2023. The statistical analysis explained the tendencies and multifactorial influences on travel behavior among university students. Results indicated that travel distance is associated with housing options and travel costs, whereas access to a metro station was associated with walking or cycling. Hence, this study contributed to a deeper understanding of active travel behavior. It provided insights to guide planning practitioners and decision makers in creating integrated transport policy packages that address the barriers and needs of the university community and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Changes in Travel Activities and Preferences in Gangwon Province, South Korea, Due to Social Distancing Measures during COVID-19

Social media data are increasingly used to assess public opinion dynamics and develop sustainable regional tourism policies. This study explored the changes in travel patterns and preferences in Gangwon Province before, during, and after the implementation of social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Five hundred and twenty-six YouTube videos related to travel in Gangwon Province were collected using NodeXL, and content and statistical analyses were conducted on travel regions, main activities, and viewers’ reactions. The main findings indicated that as the intensity of social distancing measures increased, the activity of YouTube video creators also increased, particularly in the East Coast region, compared with other locations such as mountains, rivers, and traditional markets. Viewer engagement was the highest during the implementation of social distancing, showing a considerable interest in beach travel. These results have significant implications for planning safe travel during crises such as COVID-19 and for local governments to promote a responsible travel environment.

Can We Effectively Allocate Time for Work and Life and Be Happy? The Empirical Evidence from Self-Employed Persons in Lithuania

There is not enough attention paid to the analysis of time allocation in the context of happiness. Perhaps it is because happiness economics is an expanding interdisciplinary field. So, recommendations for self-employed persons in Lithuania how daily time should be effectively allocated for life (sleep, personal care, study, housework, family care, leisure, travel and other activities) and work in order to be happy still remain an open question. In this paper the specific recommendations about it are provided for that case. So, this paper analyses two phenomena, i.e. time allocation and happiness. The main attention is given to self-employed persons in Lithuania during 2019 years. Data collection (time diary, survey, interview) and optimization methods are used to identify how daily time should be effectively allocated for two main areas (work and life) in order for self-employed persons to be happy. Having mathematical modeling of time allocation and happiness accomplished, it has been found that 36.1% of day time should be allocated for work and the rest time of the day (63.9%) should be allocated for life. The person’s levels of job satisfaction, life satisfaction and happiness should be equal to 9 points (on a ten-point scale). In this case, monthly net income would be 1001 euros and desirable monthly net income 1101 euros. The number of children should be two. The scientific and practical uniqueness of this article lies in the creation of a mathematical model that can determine how to effectively allocate work time and life time in order for a person to be happy. Although the mathematical model constructed in this paper is based on Lithuanian data, it is not country specific.

Reliability assessment of the ‘field audit for children’s active transport routes to school’ (FACTS) tool

BackgroundChildren’s active travel to school is associated with physical activity and thus health. Safe Routes to School (SR2S) programs identify ‘safe routes’ to promote children’s active travel to school. No field audit tool exists specifically to assess the microscale built environment of these ‘safe routes’ within Australia. This study describes the reliability assessment of the Field Audit for Children’s Active Transport to School (FACTS) tool.MethodsThe FACTS tool was developed using a multi-step process, including a literature search, expert opinion, and pilot testing. For the reliability assessment, two trained auditors collected data at eight schools over three weeks in April 2021. For inter-rater reliability, auditors conducted audits on the ‘safe routes’ for the same six schools. For intra-rater reliability, auditors conducted repeat measures on the ‘safe routes’ for four schools each (eight schools total), including three different schools each from the six used for inter-rater reliability and one additional school. Item-by-item reliability was assessed using Cohen’s Kappa, Cohen’s Weighted Kappa, and percentage agreement. The reliability of calculated domain scores was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients.ResultsFor inter-rater reliability, 31 of the 45 (68.9%) items had moderate to almost perfect agreement, seven items (15.6%) had below moderate agreement, and a Kappa statistic could not be calculated for seven items (15.6%) due to constant values. For intra-rater reliability, 37 of the 45 (82.2%) items had moderate to almost perfect agreement, two items (4.4%) had below moderate agreement, and a Kappa statistic could not be calculated for six items (13.3%) due to constant values. For inter- and intra-rater reliability of the segment domain scores, three of the four domains had substantial to almost perfect agreement. For inter- and intra-rater reliability of the crossing domain scores, all four domains had moderate to almost perfect agreement. For inter- and intra-rater reliability of the segment, crossing, route, and school scores, all had substantial to perfect agreement.ConclusionsThe FACTS tool can reliably characterise the microscale built environment of promoted ‘safe routes’ for their use within SR2S programs, and should be considered for use in future SR2S programs within the suburban Australian context.

Producing Travel Vlogs as Project-Based Learning to Improve the Speaking Performance of Tourism Industry Students

This research aims to find out whether travel vlog production as project-based learning can improve the speaking performance of tourism industry students and identify tourism industry students’ perception of producing travel vlogs as project-based learning. This research employed a mixed-method research design. The quantitative design utilized a pre-experimental design involving a one-group pretest-posttest. Meanwhile, descriptive qualitative was applied to the qualitative design. In collecting data, researchers employed tests and interviews as instruments. The data was evaluated using a t-test to define the hypothesis. Additionally, the analysis of the interview transcript was applied. Producing travel vlogs for project-based learning has improved the speaking performance of tourism industry students. Students can expand their ideas and creativity to produce a travel vlog. Tourism industry students also positively perceived the travel vlog production as project-based learning. Most of the students felt happy with producing travel vlogs as project-based learning. This research provides recommendations to many people to produce more travel vlogs so that tourists can use them as a guide for their travel activities

Investigating contestation around neighbourhood scale active travel infrastructure policy

Active travel infrastructure policy implemented at a neighbourhood scale has generated unexpected levels of socio-political contestation, leading to the removal of some schemes and widespread debates regarding equity and justice. Frequently, such contestation is framed as a discrete transport-centric phenomenon, engendering binary and objective pro-vs. anti-active travel infrastructure narratives, which obfuscate the intersection of policy with wider urban socio-spatial development dynamics. In response, this study adopts a critical urban approach to undertake a detailed investigation of contestation, through analysis of the subjective perspectives shaping contested discourses around neighbourhood scale active travel infrastructure. To achieve this, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders, using London as a case study. Our results show that divergent conceptualisations of sustainability, disparate experiences of decision-making processes, and heterogeneous socio-spatial contexts, all play a role in shaping and mediating contestation. Analysis of these themes highlights how processes of contestation are contingent upon the deployment of top-down technocratic policy. These findings reveal how current active travel infrastructure policy can further entrench, and give rise to, novel, uneven development processes. Thus, this study demonstrates the need for more transformative and strategic policy approaches, which offer truly participatory opportunities and consider active travel infrastructure within wider socio-spatial contexts.

Understanding the journey towards rabies vaccination for travellers: Results of a cross-sectional survey with patients and providers in the US, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland

BackgroundAlthough cases of rabies in international travellers are uncommon, they are a fatal risk which can be alleviated through vaccination prior to travel. As international travel recovers post-COVID, it is vital that travellers are made aware of the risk of rabies when travelling to endemic countries and supported to receive the vaccine when eligible. MethodsOnline surveys were conducted in the US, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland between November 2022–January 2023 with both patients and healthcare providers (HCPs). Eligibility criteria for patients included those eligible for rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) due to travel location and activity; HCPs had to be providers of travel vaccinations. In both surveys, questions were asked about discussion of rabies vaccination, decision of whether to administer a rabies vaccine, recommendation to get the rabies vaccine, and final decision to get a vaccine. ResultsThe final patient sample included n = 1557 patients who were eligible for rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis (US n = 504, Germany n = 353, Sweden n = 350, Switzerland n = 350) and n = 219 HCPs (US n = 75, Germany n = 75, Sweden n = 32, Switzerland n = 37). Although all patients in the sample were eligible for rabies vaccination, only 15 % felt they were at risk of getting rabies, and only 18 % received the rabies vaccine before their trip. HCPs reported discussing PrEP and/or PrEP and PEP with 30 % of patients presenting for travel vaccination advice, on average. ConclusionsAwareness and perception of rabies risk, and lack of consistent HCP discussion of the need for rabies PrEP may be major barriers to uptake of the vaccine for patients who are eligible to receive it.

Health enhancement through activity travel participation and physical activity intensity

IntroductionPast studies investigate the impact of health parameters on activity and transport options. However, limited research has been done on how activity-travel participation influences health outcomes. Physical activity has the potential to improve health characteristics; however, its intensity (duration and frequency) and optimal mode are yet to be determined. Therefore, the current study aims to use physical activity intensity (PAI) as an intermediate variable to study the correlation among daily activities, transport mode choice, and health parameters to pursue sustainable transportation and improve health parameters. MethodsIn September 2013, a multidimensional three-week household survey was used to collect the data containing 191 households and 732 individuals representing 0.029% of the total population of Bandung, Indonesia. SPSS was used for the data normalization and descriptive analysis, whereas R was used for the multilevel regression and structural equation modeling (SEM). Four models were developed between endogenous, mediator, and exogenous variables. ResultsA significant correlation was found between daily activities, transport mode choice, and health parameters with exceptionally acceptable R2 and p-values. The appraised results indicate that strenuous PAI is 2.1% and 0.3% positively correlates with physical health (PH) and social health (SH), showing that it mediates the correlation among transport-related daily activities and health parameters. High-income households are dependent on motorized transport which is 0.1% and 0.2% negatively associated with PH and SH. Whereas, active transport is 2.0% and 0.2% and public transport is 0.2% and 1.5% positively associated with PH and SH. Replacing short car trips with a sustainable transportation system enhances health parameters and reduces GHG emissions from the transportation sector. ConclusionThe current study concluded that the association was mediated by transport-related PAI which enhances health parameters. Policymakers and practitioners promote transport-related physical activity which may help to enhance health parameters and provide a sustainable transportation system.

Mitigating child exposure to traffic-related air pollution on the school commute: Views of parents and teachers in England

Children are particularly vulnerable to the adverse health effects of traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) due to their developing physiologies. A survey was distributed to schools in England for completion by parents and teachers. The survey examined perceptions of TRAP on the school commute and assessed views on potential interventions for reducing exposure. 76.7% of parents and 75.8% of teachers were concerned about TRAP at their school. The most common cause for concern was school proximity to a busy road (44.2% parents and 42.5% teachers).Active travel was the most common measure already undertaken. The biggest obstacles to reducing school TRAP were driving convenience, school proximity to busy roads, and lack of parental support. Parents and teachers considered local authorities most responsible for improving school TRAP. Active travel was a popular and desirable intervention for reducing potential child exposure, and parental education on this and related topics were also desirable.

School-level variation in children's moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity before and after COVID-19: a multilevel model analysis.

Schools play a crucial role in facilitating physical activity among children, but the COVID-19 pandemic has affected both children's physical activity and the school environment. It is essential to understand between-school differences in children's physical activity post lockdown, to determine if and how the role of schools has changed. Active-6 is a natural experiment comparing postlockdown accelerometer-estimated physical activity to a pre-COVID-19 comparator group. Accelerometer and individual data were collected on 1296 children aged 10-11 pre-COVID-19 (2017-8), with school characteristics collected from the 50 schools they attended. Post lockdown, we collected accelerometer, individual and school data from 393 children in 23 of the same schools and 436 children in 27 of the same schools in 2021 (Wave 1) and 2022 (Wave 2), respectively. Sources of variation (between-school, between-pupil and within-pupil) in child weekday moderate to vigorous physical activity at each wave were modelled using linear mixed-effects models with school-level wave random coefficients. We extended the model to estimate the proportion of between-school variation explained by school policy, curriculum and physical environment factors and school-aggregated pupil characteristics. We also explored the extent to which postlockdown differences in moderate to vigorous physical activity were mediated by individual or school factors. Between-school variation comprised 13% of the total variation pre-COVID-19, 7% in Wave 1 and 13% in Wave 2. School factors associated with moderate to vigorous physical activity were the following: whether physical education was compromised due to space (often: 9 minutes lower moderate to vigorous physical activity; sometimes: 5.4 minutes lower); high after-school club attendance (7 minutes higher moderate to vigorous physical activity for each additional club attended on average in the school); cycle training policy (4 minutes higher moderate to vigorous physical activity); and higher prevalence of active travel (1 minute higher moderate to vigorous physical activity for each 10% point increase in prevalence). These factors explained 22% of the between-school variation pre-COVID-19, and 72% at Wave 2. The relative importance changed, with cycle training policy and active travel being the most important pre-COVID-19 and cycle training policy, active after-school clubs and compromised physical education space most important in Wave 2. No factors were found to mediate the postlockdown differences in moderate to vigorous physical activity, except compromised physical education space, which had a suppressor effect in Wave 2. Only 27 of the initial 50 schools participated post lockdown, limiting our ability to make comparisons across waves. Sample sizes were additionally affected by missing data for some variables. While schools continue to play an important role in facilitating children's physical activity, the factors that contribute to this have changed post-COVID-19, with cycle training, active after-school clubs and ensuring physical education is prioritised even when space is limited now explaining nearly three-quarters of the between-school variation in children's moderate to vigorous physical activity. School-level interventions that focus on these areas, and policies that support them, may offer the potential to increase children's physical activity. This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme as award number NIHR131847.

Modeling Ride-Hailing and Carsharing Adoption & Use Patterns: Deciphering the Substitutive and Complementary Impacts of Built Environment, Transit Accessibility, & Active Travel.

Modeling Ride-Hailing and Carsharing Adoption & Use Patterns: Deciphering the Substitutive and Complementary Impacts of Built Environment, Transit Accessibility, & Active Travel.

Monitoring Changes in Walkability Over Time: An Environmental Exposure Change Detection Framework with Implications for Equity and Social Justice

Evidence suggests that walkability and greenspace impact travel related activity patterns and vehicle emissions which affect sustainability, public health, and equity. Resulting levels of physical activity, active, or sedentary travel time impact obesity, diabetes, and heart disease which impact COVID-19 mortality. It is now possible to track changes in locally controlled land use characteristics known to impact sustainability and health. This information can provide decisionmakers with feedback required to spatially prioritize and better link state and nationally funded transportation investments with locally sanctioned land use actions. Linking the achievement of established benchmarks of health equity-based indicators with funding establishes a more performance-based approach connecting land use with transportation investment. This study longitudinally tracks neighborhood-level walkability features at the census tract level for 2013 and 2020 for the entire USA. Longitudinal volatility-based change detection models are developed to examine how changes in walkability over time correlate with racialization and social justice. Walkability tends to increase over time with significant variations across metro regions and the urban-rural continuum. Largest and smallest increases in walkability were observed in Western Pacific and Northwest states, respectively. Increased racial and social justice disparities were observed in access to more walkable infrastructure by marginalized populations (such as less-educated, older, unemployed, and black individuals). Significant heterogeneity in the spatial distribution of walkability was observed, over the variation captured by observed sociodemographic, regional, and urban/rural factors. The findings highlight the potential for an “environmental surveillance” system to support a “performance-based” approach to transportation funding that prioritizes resource allocation consistent with Justice40 and United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals.

Influence factors on travel mode preference of working residents living far away from downtown area on workdays: A hybrid method integrating random parameter logit model and Apriori algorithm

This study presents a detailed analysis on the characteristics of travel mode preference of working residents living far away from downtown area on workdays, using GPS-based activity travel diary data from Shangdi area (Beijing). A hybrid method integrating random parameter logit model with systematic heterogeneity (RPL-SH) and Apriori algorithm is put forward to explore the influence factors and interaction effects affecting travel mode preference. First, the RPL-SH model is established to explore significant factors, and capture the unobserved random heterogeneity and systematic heterogeneity due to individual characteristics on the travel mode preference. Then, these significant factors are used to generate association rules by Apriori algorithm to investigate statistical associations between the specific travel mode preference and these significant factors. Ten significant factors are found in the RPL-SH model, in which annual household income is normally distributed. The results of the Apriori algorithm indicate that some factors combined with other factors could significantly influence working residents’ travel mode preference. For example, the combination of lower annual household income and shorter distance between workplace and the nearest bus stop is highly associated with green travel mode preference. Moreover, the results show that the proposed hybrid method not only demonstrates the consistency of the results of the two methods, but also plays a complementary role in exploring more information on travel mode preference. This research hopes to give regulators a better understanding on how working residents living far away from downtown area choose their travel mode, so as to develop more effective and targeted measures for reducing private car use and alleviating workday traffic congestion.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Transformation of Activity Space: Implications for Urban Area Planning in the Yogyakarta Metropolitan Area

Abstract Travel patterns and spatial behavior of people in the Yogyakarta Metropolitan Area during the COVID-19 pandemic have experienced adjustments due to restrictions on out-of-home activities. Spatial behavior has information on the coordinates of the location of the activity visited, and the area that represents this behavior is called activity space. Exploration of activity space may play an essential part in urban area planning. This study utilizes travel activity diary data before and during the pandemic for change analysis with a quantitative approach. Data before the pandemic used the Probability Proportional to Size method and random selection of respondents. While re-measurement during the pandemic, respondents were collected using convenience sampling on 109 individuals willing to re-engage in the survey while still considering population size. The generalization of findings applies to workers and part of middle-income families. A literature review strengthens the empirical findings and explores their implications. The findings indicate that the coverage area for activities has shrunk due to the pandemic, with most activity places falling within a short distance of one’s residence and from one another. The consistency of these findings in the future has implications for providing more flexible, multifunctional, and decentralized spaces equipped with safe and comfortable paths for active transportation modes and integrated with reliable communication technology services.

Understanding the role of the COVID-19 pandemic on risky driving behavior and injury severity of drivers: Embracing heterogeneity in means and variances

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered global mobility patterns, leading to a marked decrease in travel activities worldwide. In the United States, travel demand fell notably, contributing to a 22% reduction in overall crashes in 2020 compared to the prior year. In Oregon, vehicle miles traveled dropped by 10.8%, and crashes decreased by 23.9%, yet fatalities increased by 2.63%. This rise in fatal crashes is linked to altered driving behaviors, including aggressive, distracted, and impaired driving.This study investigates factors related to risky driving behavior-induced crashes in Oregon during the pandemic. Utilizing a random parameters multinomial logit model that accommodates heterogeneity, we found significant correlations between reckless behaviors—such as driving without a license, speeding, and neglecting to use restraints—and the severity of injuries. Our findings indicate temporal instability in factors contributing to injury severity. In 2019, severe injuries were more common in crashes involving drug use, drivers aged 45–54, and in speed zones of 45–55 mph. In 2020, young drivers under 25 and night-time crashes on lit streets were more likely to result in severe injuries. This research sheds light on the impact of COVID-19 on driver behavior and injury severity, particularly concerning aggressive driving. The identified risk factors are crucial for state and federal agencies to enhance road safety measures and ensure safer environments for all road users.

Walking to School: What Streets Do Children Prefer?

Active school travel provides children with a daily opportunity to engage actively with their local urban environments. Despite widespread recognition that understanding the underlying factors of children’s navigation choices is crucial for developing effective environmental interventions to promote active school travel, there is limited evidence on children’s experiences regarding their school journeys. This is due in part to the fact that most studies rely on GIS-calculated routes which may not adequately represent children’s actual home-school journeys, and hence actual experiences. This study aims to identify specific environmental attributes influencing children’s navigation choices based on children’s (9–10 year olds) actual walking routes to school in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. 45 pairs of selected and avoided streets were compared using a range of urban form (e.g., street connectivity measured through space syntax variables) and street design (e.g., footpath width) characteristics. Statistical analysis highlighted significant design attributes as potential determinants of navigation selections. In-depth street-level observations provided insight into the urban character of these street pairs, identifying the environmental qualities that could offer opportunities for active and safe commuting among children. This study contributes to the literature by broadening our understanding of the environmental attributes that may promote active school travel. Our findings, based on children’s actual experiences, may also inform urban planners and designers on designing inclusive child-friendly cities.