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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Active travel is important for children's health and well-being. The safety of children is one of the main issues when they commute between home and school by active modes because, as vulnerable road users, various factors related to traffic can put them in danger during this trip. Parents have a major role in the safety of children because often, parents decide whether or not their children walk or cycle alone to school. Numerous studies have focused on children's injuries and collisions, with little attention to parents' perceptions of children's traffic safety on the trip to school. In this study, the relationship between parental safety perception and the built environment characteristics around the school and around the home are examined.
Methods: A survey was conducted in and around Arnhem, the Netherlands, in fall 2018. The safety perception of parents was analyzed for 546 students. The required data about the built environment characteristics were collected and integrated using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Built environment characteristics were determine for each school (15 schools in total) and for the home environment of each child. Regression analyses were carried out separately for the school and home environments. Individual and household characteristics were included for the home environment analysis.
Results: The results show that three variables were significant (P-value ≤ 0.05) for the school environment. Intersection density and industrial land use were negatively related to parental safety perception, while roads with a speed limit of 30km/h could increase the safety perception of parents around the school. For the home environment, the results show that an increase in the age of children and the high percentage of roads with separated bicycle lanes and with low-speed limits (≤ 30km/h) increase parental safety perception. In contrast, major road crossings and residential land use were negatively related to parental safety perception.
Conclusions: In view of the important role of the built environment in contributing to the safe travel of children, parental safety perception must be considered in future strategies and plans. In addition, future policy should consider the necessary improvements in the built environment characteristics to enhance the safety of children when travelling to/ from school. Reducing the speed limit around each home and school neighborhood, providing more separated bicycle lanes, and decreasing the number of major road crossings between home and school are necessary for the safety perception of parents.
Keywords: SR2S
Language: en |