Perceived Safety Influencing Active Travel to School-A Built Environment Perspective

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 20; no. 2; p. 1026
• Main Authors: Wangzom, Dorji, White, Marcus, Paay, Jeni
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 06.01.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Bicycling; Built Environment; Child; Children; Commuting; Depth perception; Environment Design; Fatalities; Humans; Intervention; Neighborhoods; Parents & parenting; Perception; Perceptions; Residence Characteristics; Residential density; Residential development; Residential location; Review; Reviews; Roads & highways; Safety; Schools; Traffic; Traffic accidents & safety; Transportation; Travel; Urban environments; Walking; New Zealand; Denmark; United Kingdom > UK; Australia; United States > US; Finland; neighborhood safety; distance; children; traffic safety; active school travel; built-environment
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20021026

Despite the many research studies on active school travel (AST), the number of children walking/cycling to school is decreasing as there is a lack of implementable research evidence. This review through database searches from 2000 to 2020 aims to identify research gaps and explore new perspectives. The articles are selected and screened methodically for systematic presentation of the review. An existing active school travel framework is used to structure and discuss this review paper on mediating factors influencing children's active travel to school, that is the perceived traffic safety, neighborhood safety, and distance to school. Perception of traffic safety could be ameliorated through lateral separation from the traffic, and this could be a new area of research. The neighborhood safety perception may require more research to validate the previous findings. Schools should be located within high-density residential development so that many children can walk to school.