| According to the National Household Travel Survey, children are relying more on private automobile, school bus or transit to get to their schools in recent times. About 18 percent of children with ages ranging from six to twelve walked or biked to school in 2001 compared with 42 percent of them in 1969. This decline in walking and bicycling was followed by a decline in physical activities among children and a rise in childhood obesity. Numerous studies attribute the decline in walking and biking to long distance between schools and homes as compared previous years. However, parents cited safety concerns as the primary reason why children are not walking or biking to school in other studies. The Safe Routes to School is an initiative of the United States Department of Transportation with the objective of reviving the tradition of walking and bicycling safely to school for the health benefit of students, for the improvement of air quality around schools, and for a decrease in traffic congestion during peak hours. This research analyzed factors that influence parents' decision in choosing transportation modes for schoolchildren in the District of Columbia. The study used data from pilot public schools participating in the District's Safe Routes to School Program. The analysis was limited to students living within a 2-mile radius of their schools, which is the criterion for Safe Routes to School projects. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict the shares between three transportation modes (Walk/Bike, Auto and Transit). Factors that were found to be significant in predicting mode choice included distance home-to-school, student's grade, school's encouragement of walking and biking, and walking/biking fun for schoolchildren. |
