Travel Behaviour and Transportation Challenges of Households with Pre-School Aged Children: A Child-Care Centre Based Study

Abstract

Sustainable transportation planning practices and current research lack in addressing the requirements of households that must travel with young children. It is important that planners have an understanding of the transportation challenges imposed on households so as to better inform which planning practices will have the most positive impact. The purpose of this study was to provide a baseline exploration to broadly investigate travel patterns and determine transportation challenges for households with pre-school aged children in the Halifax Regional Municipality. This study used a web-based survey that contained a questionnaire and travel diary which was distributed to all licensed child-care facilities in the HRM. As families are inclined to use sustainable transportation more to access the child-care centre, there is opportunity to further encourage this by focusing sustainable transportation planning efforts toward the child-care centre destination.