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This is among the first studies to provide empirical evidence on active school travel rates and determinants before and after the first Covid-19 lockdown in spring 2020. We have collected and analyzed primary survey data on the school travel patterns of 472 school-age children in Hanoi, Vietnam. The findings show that the Covid-19 pandemic has been quite detrimental: once schools reopened, the prevalence of active school travel decreased from 53% to less than 31%. Where parents, especially mothers, did not face barriers to motorized travel, they assumed the role of chauffeur. Parents who were more concerned about community infections were more motivated to shift children to motorized modes. Walking was more affected than cycling because it was seen as more likely to lead to physical contact and virus transmission. Active school travel dropped more steeply in urban districts (as opposed to poorer, non-urban districts) and in those areas where home-school distances were the largest. It appears that the most common perceptions around barriers to active school travel have been exacerbated during the pandemic as parents and children adapt to “the new normal”.

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in targeting the safety of bus operations worldwide; however, little is known about the determinants of the bus crash severity in developing countries. By estimating an ordered logit model using the bus-involved collision data in Hanoi (Vietnam), spanning the period from 2015 to 2019, this study investigates various factors associated with the crash severity. The results reveal that the severity risk increases for (1) large buses, (2) raining conditions, (3) evening or night, (4) sparse traffic, (5) non-urban areas, (6) roads with at least three lanes, (7) curved roads, (8) two-way roads without a physical barrier, (9) head-on collision, and (10) pedestrian-related crashes. Aside from confirming the crucial roles of a wide range of factors, this research has examined the effects of two determinants (traffic density and crash area) that have not been considered for the cases of developing countries previously. Based on the findings on the impacts of factors, a series of policy recommendations regarding improving road conditions in non-urban areas, promoting walking infrastructure, reminders of high-risk situations for drivers, safety notes when improving bus service quality, and recording bus-related crashes are proposed.