School Commute Research Articles

Parental safety concerns and active school commute: correlates across multiple domains in the home-to-school journey

BackgroundEmpirical evidence of the relationship between safety concerns and walking to school (WTS) is growing. However, current research offers limited understanding of the multiple domains of parental safety concerns and the specific mechanisms through which parents articulate safety concerns about WTS. A more detailed understanding is needed to inform environmental and policy interventions. This study examined the relationships between both traffic safety and personal safety concerns and WTS in the U.S.MethodsThis cross-sectional analysis examined data from the Texas Childhood Obesity Prevention Policy Evaluation (T-COPPE) project, an evaluation of state-wide obesity prevention policy interventions. All study data were from the survey (n = 830) of parents with 4th grade students attending 81 elementary schools across Texas, and living within two miles from their children's schools. Traffic safety and personal safety concerns were captured for the home neighborhood, en-route to school, and school environments. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess the odds of WTS controlling for significant covariates.ResultsOverall, 18% of parents reported that their child walked to school on most days of the week. For traffic safety, students were more likely to walk to school if their parent reported favorable perceptions about the following items in the home neighborhood environment: higher sidewalk availability, well maintained sidewalks and safe road crossings. For the route to school, the odds of WTS were higher for those who reported "no problem" with each one of the following: traffic speed, amount of traffic, sidewalks/pathways, intersection/crossing safety, and crossing guards, when compared to those that reported "always a problem". For personal safety in the en-route to school environment, the odds of WTS were lower when parents reported concerns about: stray or dangerous animals and availability of others with whom to walk.ConclusionsFindings offered insights into the specific issues that drive safety concerns for elementary school children’s WTS behaviors. The observed associations between more favorable perceptions of safety and WTS provide further justification for practical intervention strategies to reduce WTS barriers that can potentially bring long-term physical activity and health benefits to school-aged children.

자전거 이용자의 이용목적에 부합하는 자전거 전용도로 설계에 관한 연구

증가하고 있는 자동차로 인하여 발생하는 환경 문제의 해결방안으로 친환경 교통수단으로서의 자전거 이용이 권장되고 있다. 자전거 이용의 활성화를 위해서는 자전거 사용자의 이용목적을 반영할 수 있는 연결성과 안전성을 확보한 자전거 전용도로의 구축이 요구된다. 본 연구에서는 자전거 도로 이용자에 대한 설문조사 결과를 바탕으로 자전거의 주요 이용목적을 통학용 및 레저용으로 설정하고, 이와 관련된 시설물들을 Dijkstra 알고리즘을 활용하여 기 구축된 자전거 도로와 최단거리로 연계할 수 있는 방안을 도출하였다. 또한 탐색된 네트워크에 RTK DGPS 측량을 실시하여 3차원 좌표를 획득하고 이를 바탕으로 자전거 전용도로의 링크별 경사를 측정하였다. 측량된 경사를 활용하여 일정 경사 이상의 링크를 배제하고 우회도로를 탐색하는 방안을 적용하여 사용자의 편의와 안전을 확보하였다. 전라남도 목포시를 대상으로 제안된 방법을 적용하여 결과를 분석하였다. As a solution for environmental problems caused by increasing number of vehicles, it is encouraged to use a bicycle as an environment-friendly transportation method. To vitalize the bicycle usage, it is a necessary to construct bicycle roads that are safe and suitable for users. Based on the previous research results, we assume the main purposes of bicycle usages are mainly local leisure activity and school commuting. Thus, the proposed method finds the shortest link between the existing bicycle road network and bicycle usage facilities such as leisure activity places or schools over public road network. Then, we carry out the RTK DGPS survey for the candidate links, and analyze the slopes of them. When the slope of a found link is larger than a threshold, an alternative link is re-found for the safety and convenience of a bicycle user. The proposed method is applied to the real bicycle road network in Mokpo, Chunnam and the results are discussed.

Inter-municipal commuting and impact of PM10 on mortality in the Lombardy region, Italy

Background. In evaluating the impact of air pollution on human health, the assumption of a static population is usual. However, daily commuting between home and work/school place may influence the impact estimate in the presence of different levels of exposure over the area of interest. Mobility in the Lombardy region is important, with the largest percentage of resident population which moves daily to its job or school place among the Italian regions. Moreover the air pollution levels are heterogeneus, with very high concentrations in the Po river plain. Aims. Our aim was to quantify the short term impact of PM10 exposure on mortality in the Lombardy region during 2007, accounting for inter-municipality school and job commuting. Methods. We used inter-municipality commuting flows from the 2001 census to estimate the yearly number of attributable deaths in each municipality. We assumed that the commuters were exposed to the PM10 levels of the municipality where they work or study for one third of their time. Bayesian geostatistical models were specified to obtain shrunken estimates of PM10 annual levels and crude mortality rates at the municipality level, while we used the estimated effects of PM10 from a meta-analysis involving the 13 largest municipalities of the region. We accounted for all sources of uncertainty through a Monte Carlo simulation approach. Results. In 2007, annual PM10 levels exceeding 20 ?g/m3 were responsible for 711 deaths in the whole region. The capital city, Milan, spreaded its impact in the surrounding areas: 284 deaths were attributable to the air pollution level in Milan, 7% of which among residents in other municipalities. Conclusions. Accounting for commuting provides information on the impact that the air pollution level in each single municipality has on the whole region. This may help to detect areas where air pollution reduction interventions are a priority in order to protect and improve individual and community health.

Predicting Pedestrian Conflict Avoidance Behavior during School Commute Time

In this research, we adopt pedestrian’s avoidance behavior as the primary indicator of degree of danger and also use discrete choice models to predict this. Through this model, we quantitatively evaluate the dangerous in school road, develop a good understanding of microscopic mechanisms of road traffic, and finally evaluate the possible effects of traffic improvement measures through quantitative measures.

Look who's walking: Social and environmental correlates of children's walking in London

A substantial literature examines the social and environmental correlates of walking to school but less addresses walking outside the school commute. Using travel diary data from London, we examined social and environmental correlates of walking: to school; outside the school commute during term time; and during the summer and weekends. Living in a household without a car was associated with all journey types; ‘Asian’ ethnicity was negatively associated with walking for non-school travel; environmental factors were associated with non-school journeys, but not the school commute. Interventions aiming to increase children's active travel need to take account of the range of journeys they make.

The Influence of School Choice Policy on Active School Commuting: A Case Study of a Middle-Sized School District in Oregon

School choice policy has implications for school travel as it allows students to attend schools farther from their residence than their neighborhood schools. This paper uses a case study from Oregon to investigate how school choice affects parents' school travel decision making and the degree to which school choice affects children's walking or biking to school. The research shows that school choice is associated with lengthened school travel distance and parents' greater willingness to drive their children to school even within a short distance. The research suggests that school choice could hinder the effectiveness of such programs as Safe Routes to School.

Integrating Parental Attitudes in Research on Children's Active School Commuting

Current active research on school travel emphasizes travel distance and neighborhood walkability as major environmental conditions affecting the occurrences of children walking or biking to school. The impacts of parental travel attitudes on children's school travel behavior remain understudied. This paper outlines a conceptual framework that incorporates the relationships of attitudes, environment conditions, and children's walking or biking to school. The framework recognizes the predictive power that attitudinal factors have for children's walking or biking to school; the framework also highlights the moderating effects of parental travel attitudes on the predictive power of some environment conditions. By using data (1,197 cases) from a school travel survey conducted in a midsized school district in Oregon, this paper reports that parental attitudes toward walking or biking to school and car use are significant explanatory variables in models predicting occurrence of children walking or biking to school when the models control for important environmental variables. The analysis also reveals that important built environment variables—travel distance to school and neighborhood walkability—exhibit varying levels of impacts on the probability of children walking or biking to school when parents demonstrate different attitudes toward active school commuting and car use. The paper discusses implications of the research findings for the challenges facing Safe Routes to School Programs and explores approaches that can make these programs more effective.

The Strathclyde Evaluation of Children's Active Travel (SE-CAT): study rationale and methods

BackgroundThe school commute is a prime opportunity to increase children's physical activity levels. However, active commuting has decreased over the past 40 years. Strategies that increase walking to school are therefore needed. Travelling Green (TG) is a school-based active travel resource aimed at increasing children's walking to school. The resource consists of a curriculum-based program of lessons and goal setting activities. A previous study found that children who received the TG intervention increased self-reported distance travelled to school by active modes and reduced the distance travelled by inactive modes. This study was limited by self-reported outcome measures, a small sample, and no follow-up measures. A more robust evaluation of TG is required to address these limitations. This paper describes the rationale and methods for such an evaluation of Travelling Green, and describes the piloting of various active commuting measures in primary school children.Methods/DesignMeasures of active commuting were piloted in a sample of 26 children (aged 8-9 years) over one school week. These measures were subsequently used in an 18-month quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effect of TG on commuting behaviour. Participants were 166 children (60% male) aged 8-9 years from 5 primary schools. Two schools (n = 79 children) received TG in September/October 2009. Three schools (n = 87 children) acted as a comparison group, and subsequently received TG at a later date. Physical activity was measured using Actigraph GT1M accelerometers. Personal and environmental determinants of active commuting were measured via parent and child questionnaires, as were factors related to the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the construct of habit. Measures were taken pre- and post-intervention and at 5 and 12 months follow-up.DiscussionThe piloted protocol was practical and feasible and piloted measures were reliable and valid. All study data, including 5 and 12 month follow-up, have been collected and processed. Data analysis is ongoing. Results will indicate whether TG successfully increases active commuting in a sample of Scottish school children and will inform future efforts in school active travel promotion.

Associations of Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Children and Adolescents With Physical Activity, Active Commuting to School, and Screen Time.

The objective of this study was to analyze associations of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) with physical activity, time spent watching television and using computer, mode of commuting to school (CS), and adiposity, by gender. Participants were 1708 students (53.8% girls), aged 11 to 19 years. CRF was evaluated with a 20-meter shuttle-run test using VO2max by previously published equation. Maturation stages determined by Tanner's criteria, body mass index, and skinfolds were measured, and a questionnaire used to assess socioeconomic status, PA, television and computer time, and mode of CS. We conducted a regression analysis using CRF as the dependent variable. CRF was independent and positively associated with physical activity [β = 0.338 (95% CI = 0.119; 0.188); P < .001] and with maturation [β = -0.876 (95% CI = 0.666; 1.087); P < .001]; independent and negatively associated with television time [β = -0.003 (95% CI = -0.005; -0.002); P < .001] and adiposity [β = -0.068 (95% CI = -0.076; -0.060); P < .001]. CRF was positively associated with CS [β = 0.337; (95% CI = 0.014; 0.741); P = .014]. No associations were found for computer time. These findings suggest that increasing overall physical activity levels through interventions in different domains such as active CS, reducing sedentary activities, such as television time, might be effective strategies for improving CRF in youth.

Promoting Active Transport in Students’ Travel Behavior: A Case from Yogyakarta (Indonesia)

School active commute has decreased in the last few decades. This occurrence resulted not only in increasing congestion and pollution, but also in decreasing children's physical health. This study aims to understand students’ travel behavior on school commute by finding the factors influencing travel mode choice. A multinomial logit model was used to explain the students’ travel behavior in Yogyakarta, a city which is dominated by motorcyclists. A number of 878 students were selected classifying into children (6-12 years old) and adolescents (13-18 years old). Empirical results showed that distance from home to school is the critical factor in determining active commute. However, factor of age, gender, and characteristics of students’ household also plays an important role in shaping students’ travel behavior. Finally, to revive active commute, several appropriate policies such as bike to school program or synchronization of work and school start/end time were proposed in this study.

School Commuting and the Impact of Cultural Differences: The Israeli Case

This paper's focus is on school commuting and related activity patterns in Israel. This topic of school travel is a relatively neglected area in the transportation literature. It may contribute only little to today's most envisaged transport problems but it generates its own insights which may impact the transport system policy and management. The study presented here incorporates data from the main two cultures in Israel: the Jewish and the Arab population. The basic hypothesis is that cultural aspects-perceptions influence commuting to school and related travel behavior. These cultural perceptions, coupled with other factors such as differences in actual and cognitive distance to school, family size, number of cars and driving licenses per household, and parents working hours may determine the commuting behavior of students /pupils to school. This study, still in progress, aims at understanding and comparing school commuting behavior of Arab and Jewish students in various cities and villages in Israel. It includes students of primary and secondary schools. The data collection was held in different locations in Israel. The methodology includes a questionnaire that was filled by the students in class and a questionnaire filled by the parents at home. It compiled data concerning the school commuting and includes some general information regarding other travel activities. The analyses are performed separately for the two study populations. We will describe the input data used for the comparison and discuss home-to-school commuting distances/time and modal-splits for the Arab and Jewish populations. Among the main results it was found that there are differences in terms of home to school commuting but a striking difference exist in the school to home commuting. This is certainly accounted for differences between the two populations.

Asthma and School Commuting Time

This study examined associations of asthma with school commuting time. Time on likely school commute route was used as a proxy for on-road air pollution exposure among 4741 elementary school children at enrollment into the Children's Health Study. Lifetime asthma and severe wheeze (including multiple attacks, nocturnal, or with shortness of breath) were reported by parents. In asthmatic children, severe wheeze was associated with commuting time (odds ratio, 1.54 across the 9-minute 5% to 95% exposure distribution; 95% confidence interval, 1.01 to 2.36). The association was stronger in analysis restricted to asthmatic children with commuting times 5 minutes or longer (odds ratio, 1.97; 95% confidence interval, 1.02 to 3.77). No significant associations were observed with asthma prevalence. Among asthmatics, severe wheeze was associated with relatively short school commuting times. Further investigation of effects of on-road pollutant exposure is warranted.

Study on the Impact of Bicycle Environment on School Commute

Study on the Impact of Bicycle Environment on School Commute

Vehicle Emissions during Children’s School Commuting: Impacts of Education Policy

We explore how school policies influence the environmental impacts of school commutes. Our research is motivated by increased interest in school choice policies (in part because of the U.S. "No Child Left Behind" Act) and in reducing bus service to address recent budget shortfalls. Our analysis employs two samples of elementary-age children, age 5-12: a travel survey (n = 1246 respondents) and a school enrollment data set (n = 19,655 students). Multinomial logistic regression modeled the determinants of travel mode (automobile, school bus, and walking; n = 803 students meeting selection criteria). Travel distance has the single greatest effect on travel mode, though school choice, trip direction (to- or from-school), and grade play a role. Several policies were investigated quantitatively to predict the impact on school travel, vehicle emissions, and costs. We find that eliminating district-wide school choice (i.e., returning to a system with neighborhood schools only) would have significant impacts on transport modes and emissions, whereas in many cases proposed shifts in school choice and bus-provision policies would have only modest impacts. Policies such as school choice and school siting may conflict with the goal of increasing rates of active (i.e., nonmotorized) school commuting. Policies that curtail bus usage may reduce bus emissions but yield even larger increases in private-vehicle emissions. Our findings underscore the need to critically evaluate transportation-related environmental and health impacts of currently proposed changes in school policy.

An IEEE802.15.4-Based System for Locating Children on Their School Commutes

With the increasing number of crimes and accidents in which children are becoming involved, there is a growing demand for devices to safeguard children's security by detecting their locations on their way to and from school. This paper proposes a system that uses an IEEE802.15.4-standard network to detect children's locations. To overcome the susceptibility of radio interference from nearby wireless LANs, frequency division multiplexing is applied to this IEEE802.15.4-based network, toward improving data acquisition from terminal units. The effectiveness of the system was field-tested with elementary school students who used about 400 IEEE 802.15.4-compliant terminal units. An experiment verified that the use of frequency division multiplexing in an environment where radio interference by wireless LANs is strong allowed the network to double the success rate of information communication from terminal units relative to that without frequency division multiplexing. In the experiment for detecting elementary schoolers' arrival at and departure from school, the terminal detection rate was 99% and the terminal detection rate on the designated school routes was 90%. These results prove the effectiveness of the system in detecting locations.

Analyses of school commuting data for exposure modeling purposes

Human exposure models often make the simplifying assumption that school children attend school in the same census tract where they live. This paper analyzes that assumption and provides information on the temporal and spatial distributions associated with school commuting. The data were obtained using Oak Ridge National Laboratory's LandScan USA population distribution model applied to Philadelphia, PA. It is a high-resolution model used to allocate individual school-aged children to both a home and school location, and to devise a minimum-time home-to-school commuting path (called a trace) between the two locations. LandScan relies heavily on Geographic Information System (GIS) data. With respect to school children attending school in their home census tract, the vast majority does not in Philadelphia. Our analyses found that: (1) about 32% of the students walk across two or more census tracts going to school and 40% of them walk across four or more census blocks; and (2) 60% drive across four or more census tracts going to school and 50% drive across 10 or more census blocks. We also find that: (3) using a 5-min commuting time interval - as opposed to the modeled "trace" - results in misclassifying the "actual" path taken in 90% of the census blocks, 70% of the block groups, and 50% of the tracts; (4) a 1-min time interval is needed to reasonably resolve time spent in the various census unit designations; and (5) approximately 50% of both the homes and schools of Philadelphia school children are located within 160 m of highly traveled roads, and 64% of the schools are located within 200 m. These findings are very important when modeling school children's exposures, especially, when ascertaining the impacts of near-roadway concentrations on their total daily body burden. As many school children also travel along these streets and roadways to get to school, a majority of children in Philadelphia are in mobile source-dominated locations most of the day. We hypothesize that exposures of school children in Philadelphia to benzene and particulate matter will be much higher than if home and school locations and commuting paths at a 1-min time resolution are not explicitly modeled in an exposure assessment. Undertaking such an assessment will be the topic of a future paper.

Association of Childhood Asthma with School Commuting Time

Association of Childhood Asthma with School Commuting Time

Active and Passive Commuting to School: Influences on Affect in Primary School Children

Active and Passive Commuting to School: Influences on Affect in Primary School Children

Validity of physical activity and food consumption questionnaire for children aged seven to ten years old

OBJECTIVES: assess reproducibility and concurrent validity of the questionnaire focusing on a typical physical activity and food intake day (DAFA) to measure physical activity and food intake in children between seven and ten years old. METHODS: sixty nine children recruited in a public school located in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina participated of the survey. Reproducibility was determined by comparing measures of two DAFA applications in a two week interval while concurrent validity of physical activity was assessed by comparing DAFA with a questionnaire filled by parents/teachers. As for food intake, the reference method was a 24 hour recordatory. Analysis included concordance coefficient determination, intraclass correlation, adjusted kappa coefficient and Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis tests. RESULTS: concordance coefficient was of 88% (school commuting) and 68% (physical activity related attitude) while intraclass correlation was of 0.85 for the general measure for physical activity. Using the report of parents/teachers, the children were broken into three groups of physical activities (low/medium/high), it should be considered that DAFA scores differed significantly. As for food intake measuring, 80% of concordance was determined between DAFA applications. Interinstrument convergence was substantial/moderate in relation to 17 food items. CONCLUSIONS: DAFA allows for physical activity and food intake measures in children with good reproducibility and moderate validation evidence.

Temporal Patterns of Crashes of 16-to 17-Year-Old Drivers in Fairfax County, Virginia

Objective. To develop a better understanding of the frequency and characteristics of teenage driver crashes occurring during school commute times. Method. Data were obtained from police reports of crashes involving drivers ages 16–17 that occurred between September 2001 and August 2004 in Fairfax County, Virginia. Temporal patterns and other characteristics of crash involvement during the school year were examined, and crashes during school commute times were compared with those at other times. Results. Teenage driver crash involvement spiked during weekday school commute times. Compared with other times, crashes during school commute times were significantly more likely to involve multiple vehicles but less likely to result in injuries or involve drivers who were male, made driving errors, or had been drinking alcohol. Crashes during school commute times were more likely to involve more than one teenage driver and occur close to schools. Conclusions. Crashes involving teenage drivers are prevalent during school commute times. Many of these crashes involve multiple teenage drivers and occur near schools. Schools and communities should consider programs and policies that reduce teenage driving to school and enhance the safety of teenagers that do drive.