Exploring COVID-19 pandemic potential impacts on students’ school travel behavior

Abstract

This study aims to identify the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on school trips using a survey of 1120 students and their households in Cairo, Egypt. We found that students' age, distance to school, and school type (public or private) influence the mode used to school, the majority of parents would prefer to wait for one month or more after the lockdown before sending their children to school, and the pandemic has a significant impact on parents' evaluation of the various schooling options. Based on the responses and using different scenarios, we predicted that the original vehicle-kilometers-traveled would increase by 17% to 34%, with most of the expected modal shift occurring from large occupancy vehicles to smaller vehicles. This shift was attributed to; the distance to school, the father's occupation and education level, parents waiting more time to send children to school, and parents expecting reduced class capacity.