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Children's Travel to School: Discrete Choice Modeling of Correlated Motorized and Nonmotorized Transportation Modes Using Covariance Heterogeneity

Author

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  • Gudmundur F Ulfarsson

    (Department of Civil Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, Campus Box 1130, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA)

  • Venkataraman N Shankar

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 212 Sackett Building, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA)

Abstract

Children's school travel mode is changing, especially away from walking and bicycling and towards private automobiles. Simultaneously we see warning signs from a public health standpoint as children are becoming less active. It has been suggested that walking and bicycling to or from school could help shift this trend, moving it towards greater activity, and researchers are therefore exploring choices of school-trip mode in relation to the pedestrian friendliness of the built environment. Mode-choice models are generally framed as multinomial logit (MNL) models. However, the limitations of MNL models can cause unrealistic effects when walking and bicycling are included with motorized modes. In this paper the focus is on accounting for individual-specific heterogeneity, since different children or families may have very different tastes or tolerances, such as travel time, when it comes to choosing between driving a private automobile, taking the school bus, bicycling, or walking to or from school. The results show that such heterogeneity exists, and that it is more important for nonmotorized modes than for the motorized modes. The results show that accounting for correlation across modes leads to more realistic marginal rates of substitution (cross-elasticities) across modes—in particular, an increase in the walking distance negatively affects the probability both of walking and of bicycling.

Suggested Citation

  • Gudmundur F Ulfarsson & Venkataraman N Shankar, 2008. "Children's Travel to School: Discrete Choice Modeling of Correlated Motorized and Nonmotorized Transportation Modes Using Covariance Heterogeneity," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 35(2), pages 195-206, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:35:y:2008:i:2:p:195-206
    DOI: 10.1068/b3360
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. McMillan, Tracy Elizabeth, 2003. "Walking and Urban Form: Modeling and Testing Parental Decisions about Children’s Travel," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt6j9639b2, University of California Transportation Center.
    2. Bhat, Chandra R., 1997. "Covariance heterogeneity in nested logit models: Econometric structure and application to intercity travel," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 11-21, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Deka, Devajyoti, 2013. "An explanation of the relationship between adults’ work trip mode and children’s school trip mode through the Heckman approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 54-63.

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