Trip Patterns at Primary Schools

Abstract

In the town of Stellenbosch, vehicular trips to and from schools are major contributors to traffic congestion during peak times. The congestion that is observed at individual schools within Stellenbosch, varies significantly, suggesting that the trip patterns of learners are different depending on the school they attend. The number of trips generated by a school is estimated using trip generation rates as proposed in documents such as the Institute of Transportation Engineers Trip Generation Manual, the South African Trip Data Manual (TMH17) and Department of Transport Traffic Manual. This research, however, found variation in vehicular trip generation potential among different schools according to quintile, which is not taken into account by the standard trip generation rates. Further to this the vehicular trip generation rate of schools has changed over time due to modal shift towards motorised transport, specifically private vehicle. It is therefore possible that the number of trips to/from a given school is over or under estimated when the traffic impact of a school is evaluated. Although the travel behaviour of learners has been intensely researched in the past, very few studies compare the travel behaviour of primary school learners attending schools with different socio-economic characteristics. This study aims to understand learners’ travel behaviour by investigating and comparing the trip generation rate and modal split of learners aged 9 to 13 attending five primary schools in Stellenbosch.