The limited available data on scholar travel behaviour show that scholars of low- and middle-income households are heavily dependent on non-motorised modes as their primary means of transport, whilst available road safety data indicate that, for a variety of physiological reasons, children are the most vulnerable road users to road accidents. Media reports in Cape Town and Dar es Salaam furthermore indicate that when scholars do use paratransit and public transport systems they can be exposed to abuse.
The research is motivated by the argument that school travel planning is an important, but almost entirely neglected, aspect of the local transport planning process in the case cities. The potential benefits of adopting contextually appropriately school travel planning practices range from improving the safety and security of scholar travel, to for reducing car dependence and easing congestion.
The overall objective of the research is to evaluate the potential of school travel planning as a means of improving the safety and security of scholar travel and reducing car dependence. The project aims ultimately to produce a school travel planning ‘toolkit’ that can facilitate the formulation of school travel plans as a means of improving the safety and security of scholar travel and reducing car dependence for school trips. Given the case cities’ comparatively youthful demographic profile, adoption and extensive use of school travel planning products of the project may have a profound impact on reducing car travel in the case cities, and subsequently on treating non-motorised modes in their own right with institutional and implementation frameworks.
Project leader: Dr Hannibal Bwire
Department of Transportation and Geotechnical Engineering, University of Dar es Salaam
