title: The role of parental risk judgements, transport safety attitudes, transport priorities and accident experiences on pupils' walking to school.
abstract: Walking to school could improve pupils' health condition and might also reduce the use of motorized transport modes, which leads to both traffic congestion and air pollution. The current study aims to examine the role of parental risk judgements (i.e. risk perception and worry), transport safety attitudes, transport priorities and accident experiences on pupils' walking and mode choices on school trips in Iran, a country with poor road safety records. A total of 1078 questionnaires were randomly distributed among pupils at nine public and private schools in January 2014 in Rasht, Iran. Results from valid observations (n=711) showed that parents with high probability assessments of accidents and strong worry regarding pupils' accident risk while walking were less likely to let their children walk to school. Parents with high safety knowledge were also more likely to allow their pupils to walk to school. Parents who prioritized convenience and accessibility in transport had a stronger tendency to choose motorized modes over walking modes. Also, parents who prioritized safety and security in transport were less likely to allow pupils to walk to school. Elasticities results showed that a one percent increase in priorities of convenience and accessibility, priorities of safety and security, car ownership and walking time from home to school reduced walking among pupils by a probability of 0.62, 0.20, 0.86 and 0.57%, respectively. A one percent increase in parental safety knowledge increased the walking probability by around 0.25%. A 1 unit increase in parental probability assessment and worry towards pupils' walking, decreased the probability of choosing walking mode by 0.11 and 0.05, respectively. Policy-makers who aim to promote walking to schools should improve safety and security of the walking facilities and increase parental safety knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Tarbiat Modares University, Civil & Environmental Eng. Faculty, Transportation Planning Department, Tehran, Iran; School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science & Technology, Narmak, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: milad_mehdizadeh@ymail.com.
authors.forename: Milad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mehdizadeh
authors.affiliation: St. Olavs University Hospital, Clinic of Substance Use and Addiction Medicine, Department of Research and Development, Box 3250 Sluppen, 7006 Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Trond
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nordfjaern
authors.affiliation: Tarbiat Modares University, Civil & Environmental Eng. Faculty, Transportation Planning Department, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: armamdoohi@modares.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Amir Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Mamdoohi
authors.affiliation: School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science & Technology, Narmak, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Afshin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shariat Mohaymany
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D000069636:Pedestrians; D012307:Risk Factors; D012449:Safety; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014186:Transportation; D016138:Walking
keywords: Accident experiences; Pupils’ walking; Risk judgments; Safety attitudes; School trips; Transport priorities