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Children are traveling longer distances to school, and the share traveling by car is increasing. This paper examines the effects of school attributes on school choice, which in turn gives rise to travel distance and mode choice. It is well known that school quality is capitalized into residential land values. Households willing and able to pay price premiums may choose to live closer to good-quality schools. In contrast, households with less ability to pay are likely to live in places with schools of lower quality. The California public school system has an open enrollment policy, which allows students to transfer out of their neighbourhood school when places are available. When this option is exercised, students may travel longer distances to school compared with students who attend their neighbourhood schools. We used travel diary data from the 2001 Post Census Regional Household Travel Survey to model school destination choices for K-12 students in the Los Angeles region, California. Parents may choose to send their children to neighbourhood schools, other schools within their home district, or out-of-district schools. We find that location, school quality, and other school features influence the probability of a school being chosen, and the extent to which these factors influence choice varies depending on the characteristics of the residential district and the attributes of the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Children's independent mobility in many urban areas in the United States has been in decline. This implies that children's out-of-home travel involves the company of adults more often than before. This need requires parents to seek ways to balance work-family life. This study examines the factors that influence a parent-child joint trip to school in dual-earner households, with special consideration given to parental work arrangements and location, which act as intra-household temporal and spatial constraints. The study is carried out in the five-county Los Angeles region, drawing from household travel diaries from the 2001 Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Post Census Regional Household Travel Survey. The results show that parental employment, especially the mother's, is a very important factor influencing the probability of a joint trip to school. In terms of temporal constraints, longer working hours will reduce the likelihood that a child will be escorted by its parents. However, the option of flexible work hours offsets the negative effect of long working hours by offering a higher degree of scheduling flexibility. In terms of spatial constraints, the closer the mother's workplace is to the school, the more likely it is that the child will be escorted by the parents. This research provides important evidence that a child's joint trip is heavily influenced by the parents' work schedule and location. The findings shed light on how the provision of certain employment policies and programs may affect joint trips to school. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Over the past twenty-five years, more workers in the United States have been given the option of flexible work schedules, which are designed to redistribute commuter traffic over the course of a day by allowing employees to vary their arrival and/or departure times. This paper examines whether and to what degree access to flexible work schedules affects the departure times of commuters in the two largest and most congested areas of California: the Los Angeles and San Francisco regions. Trip data were obtained from the 2009 US National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). The results of this study show that people who have access to flexitime preferred later departure times rather than earlier times. Workers with flexible schedules were 3.30% less likely to depart before peak hours, 4.11% less likely during peak hours, and 7.41% more likely afterwards. Based on these findings, government agencies and private firms in regions with severe traffic congestion problems may consider adopting alternative work schedules. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]