tailieunhanh - By foot, bus or car: children's school travel and school choice policy

We survey elementary-school parents in St. Paul and Roseville, Minnesota, to discover how children travel to school and underlying factors influencing parent's choice of their child's travel mode. From this information we develop a statistical model of travel mode choice. We find that children's commute mode and parental attitudes towards school selection differ by school type (magnet versus neighbor- hood), income, and race. Relative to neighborhood schools, magnet schools draw from broader geographic regions, have lower rates of walking, bicycling, and commuting by automobile, and higher busing rates. Parent attitudes towards transportation also differ by race and school type. For example, parents of nonwhite and magnet school students. | Environment and Planning A 2010 volume 42 pages 2168-2185 doi a435 By foot bus or car children s school travel and school choice policy Elizabeth J Wilson Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs University of Minnesota 301 19th Ave S. Minneapolis MN 55455 USA e-mail ewilson@ Julian Marshall Department of Civil Engineering University of Minnesota 301 19th Ave S. Minneapolis MN 55455 USA e-mail julian@ Ryan Wilson Active Communities Transportation ACT Research Group Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs University of Minnesota 301 19th Ave S. Minneapolis MN 55455 USA e-mail wilson903@ Kevin J Krizek Active Communities Transportation ACT Research Group Environmental Design Building University of Colorado Campus Box 314 Boulder CO 80309-0314 USA e-mail krizek@ Received 7 January 2010 in revised form 24 March 2010 Abstract. Many school districts in the United States allow parents to choose which school their child attends school choice or magnet schools while other school districts require students to attend their nearest neighborhood school. Such policies influence children s transportation. We survey elementary-school parents in St. Paul and Roseville Minnesota to discover how children travel to school and underlying factors influencing parent s choice of their child s travel mode. From this information we develop a statistical model of travel mode choice. We find that children s commute mode and parental attitudes towards school selection differ by school type magnet versus neighborhood income and race. Relative to neighborhood schools magnet schools draw from broader geographic regions have lower rates of walking bicycling and commuting by automobile and higher busing rates. Parent attitudes towards transportation also differ by race and school type. For example parents of nonwhite and magnet school students placed greater-than-average importance on bus service and quality. This paper highlights the potentially unintended .