Changes in travel to school patterns among children and adolescents in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area, Brazil, 1997–2007

Publication date: Available online 29 April 2015 Source:Journal of Transport & Health Author(s): Thiago Hérick de Sá , Leandro Martin Totaro Garcia , Grégore Iven Mielke , Fabiana Maluf Rabacow , Leandro Fórnias Machado de Rezende This paper describes the changes in how children and adolescents travel to school in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area (SPMA), Brazil. Data were from children (6–11 year) and adolescents (12–17 year) who reported at least one trip to school at the SPMA Household Travel Survey for the years 1997 (15,491 people; 31,909 trips) and 2007 (11,992 people; 24,428 trips). We estimated: the proportion and respective 95% confidence interval, median interquartile range, and total trip time in each mode of travel (active, private, public transport) according to sex and quintiles of family income. The analysis was stratified by age group and weighted to make the sample representative of the studied population. Results suggest that the use of public transport and active transport in school travel decreased between 1997 and 2007, whereas the use of private transport increased, especially among children. An inverse relationship between median time in private transport and income was also observed for both children and adolescents. Median time of transport to school remained stable in the study period. This scenario suggests that little effort was put into improving independent mobility of children and adolescents to school by the local author...
Source: Journal of Transport and Health - Category: Occupational Health Source Type: research