Influential factors on enhancing neighborhood intermediary spaces as a context of children's walking to school

Abstract

Student‘s journey to and from school is a routine activity that can influence the acquisition of their environmental knowledge, skills, and their travel behavior that can continue to adulthood. It is a phenomenon that can create real benefits for children and their parents. The school journey can also be affected by the environmental factors both socially and physically. There is a growing trend to motorized travel mode to school in Iran as well as United States of America, United Kingdom, and Australia that can be influenced by many factors. Moreover, it also affects children‘s interaction with the environments in their journey to school that causes many consequences for them. With focus on student‘s travel behavior, this study addresses different types of students‘ travel mode to school and also targets to determine the extent of their active and passive transportation. Moreover, this study discussed some effective factors affecting students‘ travel mode choice in their way to and from school in Iran. This research was conducted at Omid town as a residential area located in northeast (Zone 4) of Tehran. The method used in this study was analysis of collected data through questionnaire s, interviews, and behavioral mappings. Three types of analysis were used to acquire the results including frequency analysis, factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. The results revealed the numerous factors affecting students‘ and also parents‘ preference in choosing travel mode to school and back. In this regard, three significant factors were identified as the most important motive factors in choosing active mode in students‘ journey to and from school: independent mobility, safety and security, and play time. These factors influencing students‘ travel mode choice in their way to school are considered as significant principles to design appropriate settings for students‘ journey. It can be also noticed by parents and those who deal with students such as city authorities to create proper sttings for children in choosing travel mode to school that can cause benefits for students.