Living the journey to school
Conceptual asymmetry between parents and planners on the journey to school
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4871288 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ron Buliung (0000-0003-4748-3321, University of Toronto, corresponding author), Ronald Buliung, Paul He (0000-0003-4579-8346, University of Toronto), Lea Flowers (0000-0001-7464-4691), Fiona J Moola (0000-0003-4904-7304, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital), G Faulkner (0000-0001-8898-2536, University of British Columbia) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 284 |
| Pages | 114237 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Science & Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114237 |
| PMID | 34298427 |
| OpenAlex | W3184193088 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 52 |
Research about school travel and the built environment developed using positivist and post-positivist onto-epistemologies often relies heavily on travel surveys, activity diaries, GPS tracking, and the "objective" measurement of built environment features using geographical information systems and planimetric data. That work takes up and applies specialized disciplinary and practice-based language (e.g., planning and engineering) and concepts that are used to describe, measure, and design the built environment. In this paper, we explore differences in how parents think about the built environment and school transport and the ways in which the built environment and transport are conceptualized in planning. The presence of conceptual asymmetry between a scholar's "model" and the "lived experience" of parents and children may have implications for the efficacy of school travel-related policy and planning. We use Bronfenbrenner's social ecological model to guide a thematic analysis of 37 interviews with parents about school travel behaviour in Toronto, Canada. We found that parents' experiences of the built environment are complex and varied, with different features influencing individual parents differently, and at varying levels of the ecological model. For example, mixed-use development, often held up as a necessary condition for tackling automobility, was cited as a desirable aesthetic background for driving. We were able to locate examples of conceptual asymmetry but also agreement - particularly about traffic around schools. For example, parents expressed divergent views on the impact of heavy traffic on walking, with some describing traffic and traffic safety as barriers to walking, while others indicated that resistance to driving in traffic motivated a choice to walk. Our study serves as a call to planners and geographers to better attend to the lay, everyday onto-epistemologies that shape parents' lived experiences of travel to school
Economic growth · Economics · Sociology · Early Childhood Education and Development · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet · Psychology · Urban Transport and Accessibility
Independent Mobility and Mode Choice for School Transportation
Correlation or causality between the built environment and travel behavior? Evidence from Northern California
Active Commuting to School
Environmental correlates of walking and cycling
Active school transport, physical activity levels and body weight of children and youth
The relative influence of urban form on a child’s travel mode to school
Encouraging Walking for Transport and Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents
Decolonizing both researcher and research and its effectiveness in Indigenous research
The decline in active school transportation (AST)
Environmental determinants of active travel in youth
GIS measured environmental correlates of active school transport
An Ecological Perspective on Health Promotion Programs
Developing rigor in qualitative research
Making the journey to school
The Urban Political Economy and Ecology of Automobility
The Ecology of Human Development
Modeling children’s school travel mode and parental escort decisions
Children’s mode choice for the school trip
Do school crossing guards make crossing roads safer? A quasi-experimental study of pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions in Toronto, Canada
Environmental correlates of children's active transportation
Active versus passive transportation to school–differences in screen time, socio-economic position and perceived environmental characteristics in adolescent girls
School site and the potential to walk to school
The safe journeys of an enterprising school
Toward an understanding of children’s perceptions of their transport geographies
Built environment correlates of active school transportation
Fronts and Backs
Attitudes, social support and environmental perceptions as predictors of active commuting behaviour in school children
The Influence of the Physical Environment and Sociodemographic Characteristics on Children's Mode of Travel to and From School
Encouraging Walking
The journey to school in Britain since the 1940s
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Travel and the Built Environment
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |