Influential Factors on Children′s Spatial Knowledge and Mobility in Home–School Travel A Case Study in the City of Tehran

Abstract

This paper studies two main issues: 1) the parameters forming children′s spatial knowledge and 2) the influential factors on children′s mobility in home–school travel and the choice of travel mode. For this purpose the daily home–school itinerary of children living in a high density residential community within Tehran was surveyed. The data were analyzed with relevance to age, gender, travel mode, home–school distance, traffic and social safety. Results confirmed the significance of children′s mobility within home–school travel in their acquisition of spatial knowledge. Those children who walked to school or took the bus on their own, presented better sketch maps compared to those who were driven by car or took the school bus. Age was also found to be a significant factor in the children′s mobility within home–school travel and in the drawing of the sketch maps. Unexpectedly, boys did not present a better spatial knowledge than that of girls. This may be attributed to the higher average home–school distance for boys. Finally, the results indicated that traffic danger and social insecurity are indirectly influential on children′s spatial knowledge by imposing restrictions on their mobility within home–school travel.