What Drives Them to Drive?—Parents' Reasons for Choosing the Car to Take Their Children to School

Abstract

Children's school journeys have changed vastly during recent decades: More children are being driven to school in private cars instead of walking and cycling, with many who are entitled to a free school bus service still being driven. Earlier research into travel mode choice has often investigated how urban form impacts upon mode choice regarding school journeys—in particular how urban form hinders or enables the use of the active mode. This paper quantitatively explores parents' stated reasons for choosing the car and the relationship between these reasons and the decision to use the car to take their children to school. We additionally investigate the relationship between sociodemographic factors, distance, and both the stated reasons and the actual mode decision. A sample of 245 parents (194 women) of school children aged 10–15 in the County of Värmland in Sweden were included in the study. The results of PLS-SEM show that the factor Social convenience has a direct relationship with the frequency of car use indicating that the wish to accompany the child and the convenience of car impacts on car choice. If the child is not allowed to travel independently, the parents choose the car to take him/her to school. Sociodemographic factors had a direct relationship with the stated reasons, whereby parents with a higher level of education valued safety/security less. Quite surprisingly, distance (i.e., environmental factor) did not affect car use, indicating that parents drive their children to school regardless of distance. By isolating the particular reasons for choosing the car, this paper focuses on a potentially important missing piece as regards finding out what motivates the increasing car usage in children's school journeys. An increased knowledge of what motivates the decision to take children by car is important for effective policies aimed at changing parents' inclination toward choosing the car.

It’s about being the good parent: exploring attitudes and beliefs towards active school transportation

“…Furthermore, Westman et al found associations between parent's reasons for driving their children to school and social convenience, showing that mode choice was mostly determined by practical reasoning and that parents wished to spend time with their children during travel [12]. Contrary to previous research, these authors found no associations of mode choice with safety or distance [12]. Taken together, this research displays an overall complex picture of parents' decisions, involving both personal and environmental aspects [13].…”

“…However, parents who drive their children perceive the environment as more dangerous, and other findings from intervention studies indicate that regular use of AST might decrease parents' perceived barriers [10,11]. Furthermore, Westman et al found associations between parent's reasons for driving their children to school and social convenience, showing that mode choice was mostly determined by practical reasoning and that parents wished to spend time with their children during travel [12]. Contrary to previous research, these authors found no associations of mode choice with safety or distance [12].…”

An Application of the Social Cognitive Career Theory Model of Career Self-Management to College Athletes’ Career Planning for Life After Sport

“…Although SCCT is a well-established theory, the CSM model has recently been developed, and some of its relationships have not been tested yet. PLS-SEM has been utilized in the psychology literature (e.g., Westman et al, 2017), and also in career studies (e.g., Waters, 2004;Hsieh and Huang, 2014;Ren and Chadee, 2017). Its use is also recommended for estimating complex models that have many latent variables and indicators and test mediating effects as well as continuous moderator influences (Hair et al, 2017), as is the case here.…”

Trains in the Land of the Car: A Case Study of Mobility as Agency in the United States

“…The highlighted agentive pathway in Figure 1 represents individual agency. Based on established research and the predominance of car-use in the US [5,20,[22][23][24][25], we expect this agentive pathway to be the defining feature of mobility as agency in the US. However, how does this choice connect to agency and environment in relation to alternative modes of transport, especially trains?…”

“…In large parts of the country, low-density, sprawling communities are the norm [5,[19][20][21], and mobility of US Americans continues to be intertwined with private cars. Cars are synonymous with comfort [5], convenience [5,22], pleasure, freedom, satisfaction, and status [23][24][25]. According to Banister and colleagues [5] (p. 7), the car is culturally rooted: "Free roads, free parking, cheap petrol, and universal, cheap driver licensing are widely viewed as a natural right".…”