Factors Affecting the Usage of School Buses with Designated Pick-Up Points: A Case Study of Private School in Bangkok

Background and Objectives: Many parents prefer to drive their children to school, which significantly contributes to traffic congestion around school areas. School buses present an interesting alternative that can replace private car drop-offs. Parents do not need to spend time driving their children to school themselves. Combining several students on one bus also helps reduce the number of vehicles on the road, alleviating traffic jams and decreasing fuel consumption and pollution. The present therefore study aimed to analyze the factors influencing parents' decisions on whether to use school buses. Such factors can be used to devise strategies to encourage more parents to choose school buses over driving their children to school.

Methodology: The study used Roong Aroon School as a case study. Roong Aroon School is located in the southwest of Bangkok, in the Thakham subdistrict of Bang Khun Thian district. The researchers piloted a service with designated school bus pickup points. After the trial period, data were collected by interviewing the parents of Roong Aroon School students via telephone. The interviews gathered general information about the parents, current travel data, and data from a hypothetical scenario. All parents were required to complete a questionnaire that included questions on general information, current travel data, and two variables from the hypothetical scenario: the cost of using the school bus service and the time spent traveling to the school bus pickup point. Logistic regression analysis was then conducted to determine the factors related to the use of school buses.

Main Results: The analysis of the social characteristics of parents revealed that currently 15.6% of parents used school buses for their children, while 84.4% drove their children to school themselves. Logistic regression modeling identified five factors influencing the decision to use or not to use school buses: travel time by car, the cost of the school bus service, travel time to the school bus pickup point, experience of using school buses, and the parents' age.

Conclusions: In addition to the direct influence of the cost of using the school bus service and the travel time to the school bus pickup point on the decision to use or not to use the service, the study found that longer travel time by car also contributes to parents choosing to use school buses. Parents play a crucial role in deciding the mode of transportation for their children to school. Those who benefit from saving time by not driving to school themselves are more likely to choose school buses. The experience of using school buses is another noteworthy factor; parents who have previously used school buses are more likely to continue using the service. Additionally, older parents tend to choose school buses for their children.

Practical Application: The trial school bus service with designated pick-up points at Roong Aroon School demonstrates that policies encouraging parents to have experience using school buses can lead to increased use of the service. The school should raise awareness among the community about traffic congestion caused by excessive use of private cars and the necessity of school bus services. This understanding will help garner support and collaboration in addressing this issue more effectively.