Promoting Active Transport in Students’ Travel Behavior: A Case from Yogyakarta (Indonesia)

Abstract

School active commute has decreased in the last few decades. This occurrence resulted not only in increasing congestion and pollution, but also in decreasing children's physical health. This study aims to understand students' travel behavior on school commute by finding the factors influencing travel mode choice. A multinomial logit model was used to explain the students' travel behavior in Yogyakarta, a city which is dominated by motorcyclists. A number of 878 students were selected classifying into children (6-12 years old) and adolescents (13-18 years old). Empirical results showed that distance from home to school is the critical factor in determining active commute. However, factors of age, gender, and characteristics of students' household also play an important role in shaping students' travel behavior. Finally, to revive active commute, several appropriate policies such as bike to school program or synchronization of work and school start/end time were proposed in this study.