Abstract
National governments have provided subsidies for investments in increasing the safety and attractiveness of walking and biking to school. Evaluations of Safe Routes to School initiatives have found that they have been effective at changing behavior and reducing injuries. However, there has been little attention to the impacts of these programs on pupil transportation costs. This analysis assesses the potential economic benefits of Safe Routes to School programs in the US context by estimating the annual costs of using motorized transport for short trips to schools, examining real-world examples of the costs savings of SRTS programs, and evaluating land use impacts on school transportation costs using a simulation analysis of school bus routes. We find that there is potential for school districts and families to reduce transport expenditures through public sector investments in walking and biking infrastructure near schools. We also find that land use context matters and the most cost-effective investments would benefit schools where large numbers of children live within walking distance.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Automobile Association: Your driving costs: how much are you really paying to drive? American Automobile Association, Washington, DC (2013)
Anonymous: Vic school transport subsidy cuts attacked. The Australian. (2012) http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/vic-school-transport-subsidy-cuts-attacked/story-fn3dxiwe-1226526055643
Bushell, M.A., Poole, B.W., Zegeer, C.V., Rodriguez, D.A.: Costs for pedestrian and bicyclist infrastructure improvements: a resource for researchers, engineers, planners and the general public. UNC Highway Safety Research Center, Chapel Hill, NC (2013)
Cavill, N., Kahlmeier, S., Rutter, H., Racioppi, F., Oja, P.: Economic analyses of transport infrastructure and policies including health effects related to cycling and walking: a systematic review. Transp. Policy 15, 291–304 (2008). doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2008.11.001
Chambers, J.G., Parrish, T.B., Lam, I.: What are we spending on transportation services for students with disabilities, 1999–2000? Center for Special Education Finance, Palo Alto, CA (2002)
Chriqui, J.F., Taber, D.R., Slater, S.J., Turner, L., Lowrey, K.M., Chaloupka, F.J.: The impact of state safe routes to school-related laws on active travel to school policies and practices in US elementary schools. Health Place 18, 8–15 (2012)
Cook, H.: School bus subsidy cut. The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/school-bus-subsidy-cut-20121030-28hr2.html (2012)
Dellinger, A.M., Staunton, C.E.: Barriers to children walking and biking to school—United States, 1999. MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkl. Rep. 51, 701–704 (2002)
Delucchi, M.: Motor-vehicle infrastructure and services provided by the public sector. Institute of Transportation Studies, Davis, CA (2005)
DiMaggio, C., Li, G.: Effectiveness of a safe routes to school program in preventing school-aged pedestrian injury. Pediatrics 131, 290–296 (2013). doi:10.1542/peds.2012-2182
Federal Highway Administration.: 2009 National household travel survey user’s guide. U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, DC (2011)
Federal Highway Administration.: Federal highway cost allocation study, final report. US Department of Transportation, Washington, DC (1997)
Federal Highway Administration.: Online analysis tools: table designer. US Department of Transportation. http://nhts.ornl.gov/tools.shtml (2014). Accessed 12 Nov 2014
Florida Department of Education.: The quality link: Florida school district transportation profiles. Florida Department of Education, Tallahassee, FL (2013)
Jarrett, J., Woodcock, J., Griffiths, U.K., Chalabi, Z., Edwards, P., Roberts, I., Haines, A.: Effect of increasing active travel in urban England and Wales on costs to the National Health Service. The Lancet 379, 2198–2205 (2012). doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60766-1
Larouche, R., Saunders, T.J., Faulkner, G.E.J., Colley, R., Tremblay, M.: Associations between active school transport and physical activity, body composition and cardiovascular fitness: a systematic review of 68 studies. J. Phys. Act. Health. 11, 206–227 (2014)
Litman, T., Doherty, E.: Transportation cost and benefit analysis: techniques, estimates and implications. Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Victoria, BC (2009)
McDonald, N.C., Aalborg, A.: Why parents drive children to school: implications for safe routes to school programs. J. Am. Plann. Assoc. 75, 331–342 (2009)
McDonald, N.C., Brown, A.L., Marchetti, L.M., Pedroso, M.S.: U.S. school travel 2009: an assessment of trends. Am. J. Prev. Med. 41, 146–151 (2011)
McDonald, N.C., Howlett, M.A.: Funding for pupil transportation: framework for analysis. Transp. Res. Rec. 2009, 98–103 (2007)
McDonald, N.C., Steiner, R.L., Lee, C., Smith, T.R., Zhu, X., Yang, Y.: Impact of the safe routes to school program on walking and bicycling. J. Am. Plann. Assoc. 80.(2014) doi:10.1080/01944363.2014.956654
McMillan, T.: The relative influence of urban form on a child’s travel mode to school. Transp. Res. A 41, 69–79 (2007)
Moore, M.A., Boardman, A.E., Vining, A.R., Weimer, D.L., Greenberg, D.H.: Just give me a number! Practical values for the social discount rate. J. Policy Anal. Manage. 23, 789–812 (2004)
National Center for Education Statistics.: Table 37: enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools: fall 2010. US Department of Education. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_037.asp (2012). Accessed 12 Nov 2014
National Center for Safe Routes to School.: Shifting modes: a comparative analysis of safe routes to school program elements and travel mode outcomes. National Center for Safe Routes to School, Chapel Hill, NC (2012)
Ogden, C.L., Carroll, M.D., Kit, B.K., Flegal, K.M.: Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 2011–12. JAMA 311, 806–814 (2014). doi:10.1001/jama.2014.732
Parisi Associates (n.d.) Transportation tools to improve children’s health and mobility: look what California is doing. California Department of Transportation, Sacramento, CA. http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/LocalPrograms/TransportationToolsforSR2S.pdf. Accessed 12 Nov 2014
Pedroso, M.S., Hubsmith, D., Driesse, B.: Safe routes to school: helping communities save lives and dollars. Safe Routes to School National Partnership, Washington, DC (2011)
Pullen-Seufert, N., Marchetti, L.M., Brown, A.L., LaJeunesse, S.: Walking and bicycling in the USA: the status and future of safe routes to school in the USA. National Center for Safe Routes to School, Chapel Hill, NC (2009)
Ragland, D.R., Pande, S., Bigham, J., Cooper, J.F.: Ten years later: examining the long-term impact of the California Safe Routes to School program. Transportation Research Board 93rd annual meeting, Washington, DC (2014)
Safe Routes to School National Partnership.: Buses, boots, and bicycles: exploring collaboration between safe routes to school and school busing professionals to get children to school safely and healthily. Safe Routes to School National Partnership, Washington, DC (2014)
Safe Routes to School National Partnership.: Local success stories: reducing bus transportation costs. http://www.saferoutespartnership.org/local/local-success-stories#ReducingBusCosts (2010). Accessed 28 Feb 2014
Sisiopiku, V.P., Ramadan, O., McDonald, N.C.: Development of a cost breakdown structure for quantifying school transportation costs for various modes. Eur. Int. J. Sci. Technol. 2, 235–250 (2013)
Staunton, C.E., Hubsmith, D., Kallins, W.: Promoting safe walking and biking to school: the Marin County success story. Am. J. Public Health 93, 1431–1434 (2003)
Stewart, O., Moudon, A.V., Claybrooke, C.: Multistate evaluation of Safe Routes to School programs. Am. J. Health Promot. 28, S89–S96 (2014)
Trottenberg, P.: Revised departmental guidance on valuation of travel time in economic analysis. US Department of Transportation, Washington, DC (2011)
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.: Table 2: current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education, by function, subfunction, and state or jurisdiction: school year 2010–11. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/expenditures2/tables/table_02.asp (2013). Accessed 12 Nov 2014
van Ristell, J.A., Quddus, M.A., Enoch, M.P., Wang, C., Hardy, P.: Quantifying the impacts of subsidy policies on home-to-school pupil travel by bus in England. Transportation. doi: 10.1007/s11116-014-9525-6 (2014)
Zhu, X., Lee, C.: Correlates of walking to school and implications for public policies: survey results from parents of elementary school children in Austin, Texas. J. Public Health Policy 30, S177–S202 (2009)
Acknowledgments
This project was funded by the Active Living Research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE) with funding from US Department of Transportation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McDonald, N.C., Steiner, R.L., Palmer, W.M. et al. Costs of school transportation: quantifying the fiscal impacts of encouraging walking and bicycling for school travel. Transportation 43, 159–175 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-014-9569-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-014-9569-7