School commuting in Lisbon: Exploratory research on active and public transportation choices

Abstract

In the past decades, there has been a significant growth in awareness related to the impacts of school commuting in metropolitan areas. The use of public transport and the promotion of active transportation choices among educational communities are key issues for the development of sustainable and efficient cities. This paper explores multiple factors, which range from the socioeconomic sphere to the built environment and safety around schools and also includes variables such as the proximity of the school to public transport stations/stops, the school grade and the school type (i.e., public or private schools). This paper aims to study how all these factors influence two different school commuting choices in Lisbon, Portugal: (1) the choice between active versus motorised travel modes and (2) the choice between public versus private transport modes. The Hands Up survey database, which includes 10 different modes for school commuting, was analysed to estimate binomial logistic regression models. The results suggest that school commuting independence happens at younger ages for public school students than for private school students and that a higher socioeconomic status has a negative impact regarding the use of public transport and active commuting to school. The planning of the public transport network is also pivotal since the close proximity of stations/stops of certain commuting modes discourages active commuting to school.