Citation

Ji X, Guan H, Lu M, Chen F, Qin W. Sustainability (Basel) 2022; 14(14): e8857.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/su14148857

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A deep understanding of school travel mode can help policymaking related to the optimization of the school travel structure, alleviating urban traffic congestion due to the increasingly prominent phenomenon of urban sprawl. However, existing studies in this field are based on a specific research perspective, and comprehensive reviews are rather limited. Therefore, this study aims to provide an in-depth, systematic review of school travel by using bibliometric analysis. Firstly, based on the Web of Science, TRID, ScienceDirect, and MEDLINE databases, 457 studies about school travel are selected from between 1996 and 2021. Secondly, utilizing bibliometric analysis, the research progress is summarized with emphasis on the annual performance of the literature, publication status of a country or region, literature source institutions, keywords of the literature, and co-citation network analysis. The research results show that (1) the United States, Canada, and Australia rank top in the number of studies on school travel, and they also have high citation frequency and connection strength. (2) This study collects studies published in 34 journal publications, and the "Journal of Transport & Health" is the main source for publishing research. (3) The choice of school travel mode is significantly affected by individual characteristics, family conditions, and social status. The built environment and parental factors play a leading role in students' active travel to school, and independent mobility and active transport contribute to students' healthy development. However, policy planning is necessary to further improve the transportation infrastructure sustainability and school route safety. (4) Finally, several promising directions and potential limitations are discussed for developing countries based on the research progress in developed economies.

Keywords: SR2S

Language: en

Keywords

active travel to school; bibliometric; school travel behavior; sustainable urban transport