Active school travel in Fleetwood, Surrey, BC, Canada

Objective: Understand what factors motivate caregivers’/parents’ decisions of how their children travel to and from school so that policy can be designed to increase Active School Travel (AST).Methods: Follow-up surveys were distributed to five schools in the 2013-2014 school year, and again to three schools in 2014-2015 (22.0% and 40.6% effective response rates). Binomial logistic regression models determined the influence of household variables on caregiver/parental decisions of children’s mode of travel to and from school.Results: Models identified significant effects of accompaniment, distance from home to school, language spoken at home, and perception of neighbourhood safety. Interaction models also identified first-level effects. Conclusions: Caregivers agreed that neighbourhoods were safe, but STP did not increase from AST because STP failed to address moderating attitudinal factors. Interdepartmental/agency coordination with focus on addressing mediating and moderating factors of AST should increase AST.