Citation

Siiba A. Case Stud. Transp. Policy 2021; 9(2): 805-812.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, World Conference on Transport Research Society, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.cstp.2021.03.017

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Parental attitude and perceptions of attributes of the built environment are important factors that influence children's active travel to school. However, research in this emergent urban transportation field is limited in Ghana. This study seeks to overcome this limitation by examining the influence of parental attitude and perceptions on children's active travel to school in Tamale, Ghana. The study draws primary data from a questionnaire survey, involving 842 parents and their school children. The study finds that 43% of the children live within a walking distance to school and 40.3% of them actively travel to school. Multivariate regression analyses also show that: perceiving driving to school as a more convenient travel mode, children's preference to be driven to school by car, fear of injury from road accidents, perceived long school distance, and not encouraging active travel in schools, are significantly associated with lower likelihood of active travel. However, a greater proportion of the parents are still more likely to allow their children to actively travel to school despite their perceptions of the potential dangers on the way to school. The findings of this study generally suggest that parental attitude and perception may possibly have some significant influence on children's active travel to school in Ghana. Thus, efforts should be made by urban planners to improve upon features of the local environment to encourage more active travel to school. As this study relied on perceptions from a cross-sectional survey, further research may also be needed to understand how objective measures of attributes of the local neighbourhood may influence active travel to school in Ghana.

Language: en

Keywords

Active travel; Children; Cycling; Ghana; Parent; Perception; Safety; Tamale; Walking