Parental perceptions of transport mode choice for educational trips: A case study of Vallensbæk, Denmark

Abstract

This study examines children’s school travel mode choice and independent travel in Vallensbæk Municipality, Denmark. Previous research has mainly focused on objective determinants, while giving less attention to parental perceptions as behavioural drivers. Three discrete choice models were estimated based on parental survey data of three primary schools in 2024 and 2025: a Multinomial Logit model for travel mode choice, a Binary Logit model for independent travel, and an Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) model, incorporating parental perception of children’s cycling skills as a latent variable. Distance and grade are the strongest predictors of mode choice and independent travel. The ICLV reveals that latent parental perception of cycling skills enables both cycling and walking, a finding the standard MNL does not detect, and that parental confidence improved between 2024 and 2025, coinciding with the Green Mobility Shift interventions. These results highlight parental behavioural perspectives in school travel research.