Why Do Parents Take Kids to School? Implications for Safe Routes to School Programs

Rates of walking to school have declined sharply in recent decades and federal and state governments have recently committed funds to reverse these trends. Increasing rates of walking and biking to school requires a detailed understanding of why many parents choose to drive their children to school. The study presents descriptive data on why parents drive and walk with their children to school and how the patterns vary with distance to school, child’s race/ethnicity, child’s age. The final section evaluates non-infrastructure Safe Route to School (SRTS)program to assess how well they meet parental concerns. The authors found that while safety, particularly stranger danger, is an important concern of parents, convenience is more commonly cited as a reason for driving children to school. Among parents that drove their children less than 1 mile to school – the most likely potential walkers – 66% say they drop their child at school because of convenience. The assessment of SRTS programs found that few addressed parental convenience. SRTS programs need to address parental convenience needs by providing alternative ways of walking children to school, e.g. walking school buses, or educating parents about when it is appropriate for youth to walk without adult supervision. The first strategy may be most effective with elementary students and the second with middle and high school students.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • McDonald, Noreen
  • Aalborg, Annette
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2009-1-11 to 2009-1-15
• Date: 2009

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 20p
• Monograph Title: TRB 88th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobile driving; Bicycling; Driving; Nonmotorized transportation; Parents; School children; Systems analysis; Walking
• Identifier Terms: Safe Routes to School (Program)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01128799
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 09-0827
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 19 2009 7:48AM