IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i24p16949-d1006593.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Prevalence of Active Commuting to School and the Factors Influencing Mode Choice: A Study of University Students in a Secondary City of Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Ummay Fatema Urmi

    (Department of Statistics, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh)

  • Khalidur Rahman

    (Department of Statistics, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh)

  • Md Jamal Uddin

    (Department of Statistics, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh
    Department of General Educational and Development, Daffodil International University, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh)

  • Mohammad Nayeem Hasan

    (Department of Statistics, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh)

Abstract

Physical activity among people of all ages has been decreasing at an alarming rate in recent years. Active commuting is recognized as a public health strategy to increase physical activity. The objectives of the study were to determine the habit of active commuting and the associated factors of commute mode choice among university students in the secondary city of Sylhet, Bangladesh. The study was cross-sectional in nature, and information from three hundred and forty-eight students was collected through an online survey using Google Forms. In addition to basic statistical tools, a multiple logistic regression model was applied to identify the factors that were associated with the commuting mode choice of the students. The results have shown that the prevalence of using an active commuting mode is not at a satisfactory level (43%). No remarkable difference in commuting behavior was found between males and females. The “distance between campus and students’ residences” and the “mode of commuting preferred by roommate or classmate” are the most significant factors influencing students’ commuting choices and related actions. In addition, respondents with lower socio-economic conditions have more of a tendency to use active modes of commuting. Weather, time constraints, road safety, and family residence in rural or urban areas all have an impact on choosing an active mode of transportation for attending classes, but none is overly significant. It is recommended to promote the health and financial benefits of active commuting. Necessary facilities should be constructed to increase the level of active commuting, such as additional residential halls near campus and developing a built environment on the campus for walking and cycling for both male and female students.

Suggested Citation

  • Ummay Fatema Urmi & Khalidur Rahman & Md Jamal Uddin & Mohammad Nayeem Hasan, 2022. "The Prevalence of Active Commuting to School and the Factors Influencing Mode Choice: A Study of University Students in a Secondary City of Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:24:p:16949-:d:1006593
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16949/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16949/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raquel Aparicio-Ugarriza & Juan Mielgo-Ayuso & Emma Ruiz & José Manuel Ávila & Javier Aranceta-Bartrina & Ángel Gil & Rosa M. Ortega & Lluis Serra-Majem & Gregorio Varela-Moreiras & Marcela González-G, 2020. "Active Commuting, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Behaviors in Children and Adolescents from Spain: Findings from the ANIBES Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-12, January.
    2. Dimitris Potoglou & Botakoz Arslangulova, 2017. "Factors influencing active travel to primary and secondary schools in Wales," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 80-99, January.
    3. Easton, Sue & Ferrari, Ed, 2015. "Children's travel to school—the interaction of individual, neighbourhood and school factors," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 9-18.
    4. Jesús García & Lidón Mars & Rosa Arroyo & Daniel Casquero & Floridea di Ciommo & Tomás Ruiz, 2019. "Personal Values, Attitudes and Travel Intentions Towards Cycling and Walking, and Actual Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-20, June.
    5. Antonio Castillo-Paredes & Natalia Inostroza Jiménez & Maribel Parra-Saldías & Ximena Palma-Leal & José Luis Felipe & Itziar Págola Aldazabal & Ximena Díaz-Martínez & Fernando Rodríguez-Rodríguez, 2021. "Environmental and Psychosocial Barriers Affect the Active Commuting to University in Chilean Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-14, February.
    6. Javier Molina-García & Cristina Menescardi & Isaac Estevan & Vladimir Martínez-Bello & Ana Queralt, 2019. "Neighborhood Built Environment and Socioeconomic Status are Associated with Active Commuting and Sedentary Behavior, but not with Leisure-Time Physical Activity, in University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-12, August.
    7. Whalen, Kate E. & Páez, Antonio & Carrasco, Juan A., 2013. "Mode choice of university students commuting to school and the role of active travel," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 132-142.
    8. Leung, Abraham & Le, Thi Phuong Linh, 2019. "Factors associated with adolescent active travel: A perceptive and mobility culture approach – Insights from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 54-67.
    9. Bergström, A. & Magnusson, R., 2003. "Potential of transferring car trips to bicycle during winter," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 649-666, October.
    10. Nikitas, Alexandros & Wang, Judith Y.T. & Knamiller, Cathy, 2019. "Exploring parental perceptions about school travel and walking school buses: A thematic analysis approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 468-487.
    11. Liu, Chengxi & Susilo, Yusak O. & Karlström, Anders, 2015. "The influence of weather characteristics variability on individual’s travel mode choice in different seasons and regions in Sweden," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 147-158.
    12. Shannon, Tya & Giles-Corti, Billie & Pikora, Terri & Bulsara, Max & Shilton, Trevor & Bull, Fiona, 2006. "Active commuting in a university setting: Assessing commuting habits and potential for modal change," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 240-253, May.
    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. Eccarius, Timo & Leung, Abraham & Shen, Chung-Wei & Burke, Matthew & Lu, Chung-Cheng, 2021. "Prospects for shared electric velomobility: Profiling potential adopters at a multi-campus university," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    2. Mohammadzadeh, Mohsen, 2020. "Exploring tertiary students' travel mode choices in Auckland: Insights and policy implications," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    3. Wessel, Jan, 2020. "Using weather forecasts to forecast whether bikes are used," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 537-559.
    4. Rotaris, Lucia & Danielis, Romeo, 2014. "The impact of transportation demand management policies on commuting to college facilities: A case study at the University of Trieste, Italy," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 127-140.
    5. Rybarczyk, Greg & Gallagher, Laura, 2014. "Measuring the potential for bicycling and walking at a metropolitan commuter university," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-10.
    6. Rotaris, Lucia & Danielis, Romeo, 2015. "Commuting to college: The effectiveness and social efficiency of transportation demand management policies," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 158-168.
    7. Khaled Assi & Uneb Gazder & Ibrahim Al-Sghan & Imran Reza & Abdullah Almubarak, 2020. "A Nested Ensemble Approach with ANNs to Investigate the Effect of Socioeconomic Attributes on Active Commuting of University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-17, May.
    8. Maurici Ruiz-Pérez & Joana Maria Seguí-Pons, 2020. "Transport Mode Choice for Residents in a Tourist Destination: The Long Road to Sustainability (the Case of Mallorca, Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-31, November.
    9. Butler, Alex & Sweet, Matthias, 2020. "No free rides: Winners and losers of the proposed Toronto Transit Commission U-Pass program," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 15-28.
    10. Lavery, T.A. & Páez, A. & Kanaroglou, P.S., 2013. "Driving out of choices: An investigation of transport modality in a university sample," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 37-46.
    11. Umer Mansoor & Mohammad Tamim Kashifi & Fazal Rehman Safi & Syed Masiur Rahman, 2022. "A review of factors and benefits of non-motorized transport: a way forward for developing countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 1560-1582, February.
    12. Collins, Patricia A. & MacFarlane, Robert, 2018. "Evaluating the determinants of switching to public transit in an automobile-oriented mid-sized Canadian city: A longitudinal analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 682-695.
    13. Zhan, Guangjun & Yan, Xuedong & Zhu, Shanjiang & Wang, Yun, 2016. "Using hierarchical tree-based regression model to examine university student travel frequency and mode choice patterns in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 55-65.
    14. Kevin Manaugh & Geneviève Boisjoly & Ahmed El-Geneidy, 2017. "Overcoming barriers to cycling: understanding frequency of cycling in a University setting and the factors preventing commuters from cycling on a regular basis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 871-884, July.
    15. Lundberg, Benjamin & Weber, Joe, 2014. "Non-motorized transport and university populations: an analysis of connectivity and network perceptions," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 165-178.
    16. Thigpen, Calvin & Fischer, Jaimy & Nelson, Trisalyn & Therrien, Suzanne & Fuller, Daniel & Gauvin, Lise & Winters, Meghan, 2019. "Who is ready to bicycle? Categorizing and mapping bicyclists with behavior change concepts," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 11-17.
    17. Pérez-Neira, David & Rodríguez-Fernández, Ma Pilar & Hidalgo-González, Cristina, 2020. "The greenhouse gas mitigation potential of university commuting: A case study of the University of León (Spain)," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    18. Lanzendorf, Martin & Busch-Geertsema, Annika, 2014. "The cycling boom in large German cities—Empirical evidence for successful cycling campaigns," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 26-33.
    19. Nash, Sean & Mitra, Raktim, 2019. "University students' transportation patterns, and the role of neighbourhood types and attitudes," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 200-211.
    20. Nkurunziza, Alphonse & Zuidgeest, Mark & Brussel, Mark & Van Maarseveen, Martin, 2012. "Examining the potential for modal change: Motivators and barriers for bicycle commuting in Dar-es-Salaam," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 249-259.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:24:p:16949-:d:1006593. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.