Rybarczyk, Greg and Ozbil Torun, Ayse and Yesiltepe, Demet and Argin, Gorsev (2022) Walking Alone or Walking Together:Spatially Evaluating Children’s Travel Behavior to School. SSRN.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
The purpose of this research is to extend our understanding of children’s walking behavior to school. Using survey data from a sample of children (aged 12-15) and parents from Istanbul, Turkey, we investigated excess travel behavior using a route detour index (RDI), participatory mapping and GIS. Ultimately, we applied a robust statistical, spatial, and hierarchical global and spatial modelling strategy to highlight significant relations between subjective and objective factors with RDI for unaccompanied and accompanied children. Descriptive analysis confirmed that accompanied children engaged in more excess travel then their counterparts, and was spatially clustered. The spatial error models proved strongest and showed notable associations among children’s age, health, and gender on excess walking for both groups. Parental attitudes concerning greenspace had a positive impact on unaccompanied children’s walking, while connectivity hampered walking for accompanied children. The results provide new insights on how to encourage additional walking behavior for school-based trips.