Living in school catchment neighborhoods: Perceived built environments and active commuting behaviors of children in China

The contribution of the current study to the existing literature of school trips is twofold. First, we estimate the proportion of children living in neighborhoods within walking-distance who actively commute to school taking into consideration the educational system policy in China of “attending nearby school”. Secondly, we identify how and to what extent the neighborhood and individual-level built environment characteristics affect the behaviour of active school traveling. We recruited 1090 children from four primary schools in Shenzhen, China. Multilevel models examined the relationship between built environments and school commuting behavior (that is, mode choice, travel time to and from, and route difference to and from school). We found the average distance to school was 575 m [min = 206 m, max = 1303 m]. Three out of four children (N = 805) lived within their school catchment neighborhoods in our study samples, of which 87% were active commuters and 6% arrived in school by their parents' cars. For children living outside of school catchment areas (N = 285), 22% of them walked or cycled to school and 23% arrived to school by their parents' cars. Having more gates, measured by density of neighborhood entrances, was positively associated with active mode choice. Route aesthetics greatly impacted the active mode choice. Safety was associated with different route use to and from school. Compared to children who commuted alone, children who traveled with classmates or parents were less likely to use different routes to and from school. This study highlights the importance of considering the local built environment context of school catchment planning in understanding school commuting behaviors in China.