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(Table 19; Chart J)
11.1 In cases where the household includes one or more pupils in full-time education at school, the interviewer asks the Highest Income Householder (or his/her spouse/partner) about the usual method of travel to school of one of them (who is randomly-chosen from among all the pupils in the household).
11.2 Usual means of travel to school
11.2.1 Table 19 shows that, in 1999, walking was reported to be the usual method of travel to school for 55% of pupils in full-time education at school, about 23% were said to go by bus (16% by a school bus and 7% by ordinary service bus), and 18% went by car or van. Only 1% cycled to school. Other modes of transport, such as trains and taxis, were the usual method of travel for 2% of pupils.
11.2.2 There was little difference between the sexes, but there were differences by age. Generally, pupils aged up to 11 are at primary schools, and those aged 12 and over are at secondary schools. About 60% of pupils of primary school age walked to school, compared with 48% of those of secondary school age. This is not surprising: there are many more primary schools than secondary schools, so primary schools usually draw their pupils from smaller areas than secondary schools, and therefore it is generally easier to walk to a primary school than to a secondary school. For the same reason, only about 15% of primary school age children usually travelled to school by bus, compared with around 36% of secondary school age pupils. A car or van was the usual main mode of travel to school for about a quarter (23%) of primary school age pupils but only around one in eight (12%) of secondary school age pupils.
11.2.3 Chart J shows how the usual main mode of travel to school changes as children grow older. The percentages sometimes fluctuate from one year of age to the next, and should be regarded only as a broad guide because, for each age from 5 to 15, they are based on data for an average of around 200 pupils. Therefore, they may have large sampling standard errors - e.g. up to, say, 3 or 4 percentage points (the sample numbers for other ages are smaller, so their results have even larger sampling standard errors). When considering the statistics that follow, it must be remembered that some of the estimates are based on small sample numbers, and so may be affected greatly by sampling errors.
11.2.4 As might be expected, the usual means of travel to school varied markedly with socio-economic factors. The proportion of children who walked to school ranges from half of those from "professional" households to three-fifths of those with an "unskilled" background. About a third of children from "professional" backgrounds travelled by car or van, compared with only about one in ten of those from "unskilled" households. Only about one in seven pupils with a "professional" background travelled by bus, whereas around a third of pupils from the "partly skilled" households did so. Similarly, there was variation with household income. For example, of children from households with an annual net income of up to £15,000, around three-fifths walked to school and under a sixth went by car or van, whereas for those from households in the "over £20,000" bands, under half walked and over a quarter went by car or van.
11.2.5 The proportion who walked to school was lowest in MOSAIC "country dwellers" areas (under a fifth) and was highest in neighbourhoods described as "disadvantaged council estates" (over two-thirds). Similarly, the proportion going to school by car or van varied from only one in eleven in neighbourhoods classified as "families in council flats" areas to about a third in "high income areas". MOSAIC "country dwellers" areas had by far the highest proportion travelling to school by bus: around three-fifths. Perhaps surprisingly, the percentages travelling by bus in other areas did not vary much, ranging from 17% to 24%.
11.2.6 There were big differences between SHS-classified urban areas and rural areas. About three-fifths of pupils in towns and cities walked to school, compared with around a third of pupils in rural areas. The percentage who went by bus was about 10-20% for those in towns and cities, and 40-60% for pupils in rural areas. The percentage who travelled by car or van did not appear to vary as greatly with type of area, being between 10% and 22%.
11.3 Usual means of travel home from school
11.3.1 The interviewer also asks about the child's usual main method of travel home from school. The sub-table at the foot of Table 19 compares this with the usual method of travel to school. The "off the diagonal" percentages are very small because, for most pupils, the usual main methods of travel to and from school are the same. The right-hand column at the foot of the table shows that, overall, 58% of pupils walked home, 15% travelled home by car or van and 24% went home by bus. The "off diagonal" parts of the table show that the main difference between the methods of travel to and from school was that about 3% travelled to school by car or van but walked home, around 1% went to school by car or van but travelled home by bus, and under 1% walked to school but returned by car or van.
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