Children’s Active and Independent Travel

A primary benefit of non-motorized travel for children is the ability to travel independently from adults. However, both independent travel and non-motorized travel by children have declined in recent decades across multiple countries. Characteristics of the physical, cultural, or policy environment may require children’s trips to take place by car. Even in contexts where efforts have been made to encourage active travel, explicit requirements or cultural norms requiring children to be accompanied by adults may circumvent those efforts if the choice of mode for children’s travel depends on whether a child is able to travel independently. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between choice of mode and choice of independence (whether a child travels with a parent). Our preliminary findings confirm previous work by others suggesting that the likelihood of traveling independently and/or by active modes depends on both the gender of the child and the gender of an available parent. We also find that the likelihood that parents accompany children who are traveling by active modes has increased in recent years and that this change may be driven by some of the same forces that have lead to increasingly car-dependent travel by children. While our initial work has primarily focused on travel by children in the United States, we are currently working on extending this analysis to determine the degree to which our findings are consistent for children’s travel in Denmark.

ViBE Lab Principal Investigator

Carole Voulgaris

Collaborators beyond the ViBE Lab

Gregory Macfarlane, Brigham Young University
Anders Fjendbo Jensen, Technical University of Denmark

ViBE Lab Researchers

Aanchal Chopra (MUP ‘25)
Juliana Beekenkamp (MUP ‘24)
Sheyla Chevarria (MAUD ‘25)
Dawon Oh (DDes ‘26)

Children’s Active and Independent Travel

ViBE Lab Principal Investigator

Collaborators beyond the ViBE Lab

ViBE Lab Researchers

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