Active but not Independent: Children’s School Travel Patterns in a Compact-City Environment in Greece

Children’s active travel and independent mobility, especially regarding their daily travel to and from school, is essential for their wellbeing, influencing their physical health, psychology, social and cognitive skills, as well as priming children and youth for active and sustainable mobility choices when they become adults. Although active travel and independent mobility are interrelated concepts, they are quite distinct from each other, since a child’s active travel to school, on foot or by bicycle, can also occur with an adult escort. This article investigates children’s school commute patterns in a compact-city environment, using a structured questionnaire addressed to parents of elementary school children. The empirical study was conducted in Kordelio-Evosmos, a densely populated municipality in western Thessaloniki, which has one of the highest percentages of child population among Greek cities. The survey included questions about children’s school travel patterns, parents’ own perceptions of the characteristics of the school route, and their views regarding the overall quality of the neighbourhood environment. Children’s age ranged from 6 to 12 years, with 72.82% being 9 years or over. We found that 66.5% of the children commute to school on foot; however, only 14.08% do so on their own. Parents’ decision to escort their children along the route contradicts the area’s compact-city attributes, such as short distances between home and school and mixed uses. Problematic aspects of the neighbourhood environment such as unsafe crossings, poor pedestrian infrastructure, and drivers’ illegal behaviour were found to influence parents’ decisions over their children’s travel modes.