How Far Is Too Far?: Providing Safe and Comfortable Walking Environments

The use of active modes of travel in school trips has sharply declined for a number of reasons, some of which are rooted in urban design, location of schools, and parental reservations. Thus, policy makers are keen to find practical ways to promote active modes of travel, particularly walking. This study was an effort to determine a tolerable walking distance for school trips and identify factors that made walking trips more reasonable for students. In the vein of understanding the tolerable walking distance, a two-step framework encompassing a random utility method and a hazard-based model was introduced. This framework was applied to a set of data that were collected from middle and high school students in the city of Tehran, Iran. The framework was intended to find a more accurate estimate of tolerable walking distance in school trips by addressing data censorship problems. The hazard-based model showed that 85% of students failed to walk when their travel distance exceeded 1,900 m. In Western countries, some studies have found this distance to be around 1,500 m. This study found girls were less likely to walk compared with boys. Furthermore, safety, time, and comfort of the trip turned out to be influential in parental objections, such that they decrease the critical walking distance by 18%, 13%, and 11%, respectively.