Even in London, where levels of public transport service are still relatively high, a large proportion of children travel to school as car passengers. The results of the London Area Transport Survey (LATS) carried out in 1991 showed that 29% of the capital's school pupils are driven to school. Nationally, on average 23% of children's journeys to school during 1989/94 were in a car, a fifty per cent increase since the mid 1980s. This high use of cars for the school journey in London is of particular concern to London Transport (LT) because LT has a commercial interest in encouraging as many school journeys as possible to be undertaken by public transport rather than by private car. It has also been suggested that those who have not been regular public transport users in their youth are less comfortable using these modes and are less likely to be public transport passengers as they grow older, effectively reducing future markets. In addition school escort trips by car cause congestion and delay to other road users, affecting the reliability and journey times of bus services in London and making them less attractive to potential passengers. This paper summarises research carried out for LT using LATS frequency tabulations to determine the proportionate market shares of journeys to school and examines the factors influencing modal split, for example, age, gender, car ownership, area and trip length. The research also reviewed various measures which have been proposed to alleviate the problems of school escort journeys including 'Travelwise' campaigns on trips to school and other local authority initiatives.
Abstract