IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v41y2007i1p69-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The relative influence of urban form on a child's travel mode to school

Author

Listed:
  • McMillan, Tracy E.

Abstract

Walking and bicycling to school has decreased in recent years, while private vehicle travel has increased. Policies and programs focusing on urban form improvements such as Safe Routes to School were created to address this mode shift and possible related children's health issues, despite minimal research showing the influence of urban form on children's travel and health. This research examined: (1) the influence of objectively measured urban form on travel mode to school and; (2) the magnitude of influence urban form and non-urban form factors have on children's travel behavior. The results of the analysis support the hypothesis that urban form is important but not the sole factor that influences school travel mode choice. Other factors may be equally important such as perceptions of neighborhood safety and traffic safety, household transportation options, and social/cultural norms. Odds ratios indicate that the magnitude of influence of these latter factors is greater than that of urban form; however, model improvement tests found that urban form contributed significantly to model fit. This research provides evidence that urban form is an influential factor in non-motorized travel behavior and therefore is a possible intervention to target through programs such as Safe Routes to School.

Suggested Citation

  • McMillan, Tracy E., 2007. "The relative influence of urban form on a child's travel mode to school," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 69-79, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:41:y:2007:i:1:p:69-79
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965-8564(06)00062-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boarnet, Marlon G. & Anderson, Craig L. & Day, Kristen & McMillan, Tracy & Alfonzo, Mariela, 2006. "Evaluation of the California Safe Routes to School Legislation: Urban Form Changes and Children's Active Transportation to School," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt3vd3g3jm, University of California Transportation Center.
    2. Giles-Corti, B. & Donovan, R.J., 2003. "Relative Influences of Individual, Social Environmental, and Physical Environmental Correlates of Walking," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(9), pages 1583-1589.
    3. Pikora, Terri & Giles-Corti, Billie & Bull, Fiona & Jamrozik, Konrad & Donovan, Rob, 2003. "Developing a framework for assessment of the environmental determinants of walking and cycling," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1693-1703, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bentley, Rebecca & Jolley, Damien & Kavanagh, Anne Marie, 2010. "Local environments as determinants of walking in Melbourne, Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1806-1815, June.
    2. McDonald, Noreen C., 2005. "Children’s Travel: Patterns and Influences," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt51c9m01c, University of California Transportation Center.
    3. Seyed Mehdi Moeini, 2012. "Attitudes to Urban Walking in Tehran," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 39(2), pages 344-359, April.
    4. Guo, Zhan & Loo, Becky P.Y., 2013. "Pedestrian environment and route choice: evidence from New York City and Hong Kong," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 124-136.
    5. Downward, Paul & Rasciute, Simona, 2015. "Assessing the impact of the National Cycle Network and physical activity lifestyle on cycling behaviour in England," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 425-437.
    6. Bettina Bringolf-Isler & Christian Schindler & Kees Hoogh & Bengt Kayser & L. Suzanne Suggs & Alain Dössegger & Nicole Probst-Hensch, 2019. "Association of objectively measured and perceived environment with accelerometer-based physical activity and cycling: a Swiss population-based cross-sectional study of children," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 64(4), pages 499-510, May.
    7. Vandenbulcke, Grégory & Dujardin, Claire & Thomas, Isabelle & Geus, Bas de & Degraeuwe, Bart & Meeusen, Romain & Panis, Luc Int, 2011. "Cycle commuting in Belgium: Spatial determinants and 're-cycling' strategies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 118-137, February.
    8. McNeill, Lorna Haughton & Kreuter, Matthew W. & Subramanian, S.V., 2006. "Social Environment and Physical activity: A review of concepts and evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 1011-1022, August.
    9. Emily Talen, 2011. "Sprawl Retrofit: Sustainable Urban Form in Unsustainable Places," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 38(6), pages 952-978, December.
    10. Grazia Salvo & Bonnie M. Lashewicz & Patricia K. Doyle-Baker & Gavin R. McCormack, 2018. "Neighbourhood Built Environment Influences on Physical Activity among Adults: A Systematized Review of Qualitative Evidence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-21, May.
    11. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sabatini, Fabio, 2015. "Structural social capital and health in Italy," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 129-142.
    12. Rahul, T.M. & Manoj, M., 2020. "Categorization of pedestrian level of service perceptions and accounting its response heterogeneity and latent correlation on travel decisions," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 40-55.
    13. Lin, Jen-Jia & Wei, Yi-Hsuan, 2018. "Assessing area-wide bikeability: A grey analytic network process," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 381-396.
    14. Courtemanche, Charles & Carden, Art, 2011. "Supersizing supercenters? The impact of Walmart Supercenters on body mass index and obesity," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 165-181, March.
    15. Cerin, Ester & Leslie, Eva & Owen, Neville, 2009. "Explaining socio-economic status differences in walking for transport: An ecological analysis of individual, social and environmental factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1013-1020, March.
    16. Macdonald, Elizabeth & Sanders, Rebecca & Supawanich, Paul, 2008. "The Effects of Transportation Corridors' Roadside Design Features on User Behavior and Safety, and Their Contributions to Health, Environmental Quality, and Community Economic Vitality: a Literature R," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt12047015, University of California Transportation Center.
    17. Cohen, Deborah A. & Finch, Brian K. & Bower, Aimee & Sastry, Narayan, 2006. "Collective efficacy and obesity: The potential influence of social factors on health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 769-778, February.
    18. Feuillet, T. & Commenges, H. & Menai, M. & Salze, P. & Perchoux, C. & Reuillon, R. & Kesse-Guyot, E. & Enaux, C. & Nazare, J.-A. & Hercberg, S. & Simon, C. & Charreire, H. & Oppert, J.M., 2018. "A massive geographically weighted regression model of walking-environment relationships," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 118-129.
    19. Senes, Giulio & Rovelli, Roberto & Bertoni, Danilo & Arata, Laura & Fumagalli, Natalia & Toccolini, Alessandro, 2017. "Factors influencing greenways use: Definition of a method for estimation in the Italian context," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 175-187.
    20. Noreen McDonald, 2008. "Children’s mode choice for the school trip: the role of distance and school location in walking to school," Transportation, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 23-35, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:41:y:2007:i:1:p:69-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.