Abstract

Carpooling has potential as an alternative mode of school transportation along with other viable options, especially at a time when technology continues to increase our reliance upon shared mobility. Unfortunately, our knowledge of carpooling as a school travel mode is very limited. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap. Using a multinomial logit model, this study presents an analysis of data from the 2012 California Household Travel Survey to assess the effects of various factors, such as trip characteristics, child characteristics, parental or caregiver’s characteristics, household characteristics, and spatial variables on choosing carpooling as a school travel mode. The findings of the study indicate that travel distance is one of the major determinants of carpooling, suggesting that children are more likely to carpool to school as travel distance from home to school increases. The analysis shows that a higher income two-parent two-earner family with a 5–15-year-old female schoolchild is more likely to use carpooling for school trips when compared to other modes of transportation. Parental/caregiver characteristics are also found to be important, as children from households with young, female, higher educated heads are more likely to carpool to school. Results of spatial variables suggest that families living in neighborhoods with higher numbers of schoolchildren are also more likely to carpool. The empirical evidence presented in this study provides useful insight to school districts, policymakers, and other transportation related entities in identifying potential target groups to whom this travel mode could be presented.