School travel behaviour in the Netherlands and Flanders

AbstractThe importance acquired by private cars as the leading travel mode in most advanced countries has drawn attention to concerns related to pro-environmental travel behaviour. Indeed, the car has brought great benefits to society, albeit causing a whole lot of environmental and socio-economic consequences. In this perspective, we exploit Eurobarometer data on the attitudes of Europeans towards urban mobility to investigate the main motivations of citizens’ public transport use frequency. Ordered logistic regressions are estimated by country (Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands) and by gender. Our results suggest the key role played by a comprehensive set of socio-demographic, economic, and environmental aspects in determining urban travel behaviour. Moreover, our investigation brings to light some relevant cross-country and cross-gender commonalities and differences. The provided evidence may give policymakers a better knowledge of travel behaviour, useful for designing new interventions for environmentally-sustainable travelling.

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Children’s school travel and wellbeing in the Netherlands

Transportation and Children's Well-Being ◽

10.1016/b978-0-12-814694-1.00017-8 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 317-338

Author(s):

Iris van de Craats ◽

Pauline van den Berg ◽

Astrid Kemperman ◽

E. Owen D. Waygood

Keyword(s):

The Netherlands ◽

School Travel

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Exploring sustainable student travel behaviour in The Netherlands: balancing online and on-campus learning

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education ◽

10.1108/ijshe-10-2020-0400 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (8) ◽

pp. 146-166

Author(s):

Marieke Versteijlen ◽

Bert van Wee ◽

Arjen Wals

Keyword(s):

Applied Sciences ◽

The Netherlands ◽

Travel Demand ◽

Travel Behaviour ◽

Travel Mode ◽

Student Groups ◽

Content Type ◽

Home Learning ◽

University Of Applied Sciences ◽

Schedule Type

Purpose Daily commuting trips of higher education (HE) students account for a large proportion of the carbon footprint of a HE institution. Considerations of students underlying their choice of travel mode and their decision to make the trip to campus or to study online are explored as a necessary first step for finding an optimal balance between online and on-campus learning from both a sustainability and an educational perspective. Design/methodology/approach Focus group conversations were held with student groups from different study programmes of a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands. Findings Dutch students’ travel mode choices seem to depend on measures regulating travel demand such as a free public transport card and high parking costs. The findings indicate that students make reasoned choices about making a trip to campus. These choices depend on considerations about their schedule, type, lecturer and content of a course, social norms and their own perceived behavioural control. Alternative online options can provide students with more flexibility to make choices adapted to their needs. Social implications While these findings are useful for sustainable and educational reasons, they also seem helpful in times of COVID-19 which calls for a re-design of curricula to allow for blended forms of online and on-campus learning. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first studies looking at students’ considerations when deciding whether to travel to campus to learn or stay at home learning online.

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