Identifying Factors Affecting the Number of Students Walking or Biking to School

• Parents reported the following as the five primary factors affecting children’s walking or biking:
  • distance (67.0%)
  • traffic speed along route (53.7%)
  • traffic amount along route (51.3%)
  • violence or crime (42.1%)
  • intersection safety (38.2%)
• Parents reported the following as the five primary factors that would change their decisions and allow their children to walk or bike to school:
  • distance (25.5%)
  • safety of intersections and crossings (22.0%)
  • weather or climate (21.9%)
  • presence of an adult cowalker (17.5%)
  • convenience of driving (15.0%)
• Researchers suggest that distance between the rankings reveal a variance between people’s perceptions and reactions.
• Subjective opinions were also considered in this study demonstrating that most students and parents held positive attitudes toward students walking or biking to school:
  • Forty percent of students consider walking or biking to school “fun” or “very fun” and less than 10 percent of students consider it “boring or “very boring”
  • 57.2 percent of students consider it “healthy” or “very healthy” to walk or bike to school
  • 78.8 percent of students have asked for permission to walk or bike to school
  • Only 4.1 percent of students believed their schools discourage or strongly discourage students to walk or bike to school
  • 32.9 percent of parents will allow their children to walk or bike alone at different grades.

Zhou, Huaguo, Zhao, Jiguang, Hsu, Peter, and Rouse, Jeanette. “Identifying Factors Affecting the Number of Students Walking or Biking to School.” Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal. 79.10 (2009).