Examining Present-Day School Travel Risks

The risk management of school travel is complex and has many variables that influence safety including vehicle design and equipment, daily operations, infrastructure and environmental factors, and societal issues. The purposes of this research were to explore school travel risk in all modes and determine how things like travel safety, risk, behavior, and needs have changed, or have not changed, in the last two decades. These purposes were achieved by interviewing transportation professionals and analyzing a twenty-year crash data set from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). The responses from the interviews were separated into ten common themes. The three most mentioned themes were education programs, concerns of roadway environments, and school bus safety. Based on the responses, concerns about the roadway environment, poor driver behavior, and the role of parents on mode choice have not changed in the last twenty years; however, safety education programs, vehicle centric travel, community planning, and pick up/drop off safety have evolved over time. The twenty-year FARS data set was analyzed for school travel-related fatality and injury information and compared trends between urban and rural areas. This comparison revealed that despite perceived safety and risk concerns, fatalities in urban and rural environments have declined by 10% and 36%, respectively.masters, M.S., Civil Engineering -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-1