Keep the children walking: active school travel in Tirana, Albania Dorina Pojani a,⇑ , Kobe Boussauw b a Department of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands b Department of Civil Engineering, Center for Mobility and Spatial Planning, and Department of Geography, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium article info Keywords: School travel Walkability Pedestrian transport Tirana Albania abstract This paper examines how characteristics of the physical and socio-economic environment influence chil- dren’s school travel mode in Tirana, the capital of Albania. A survey of students aged 11 to 13, revealed that an overwhelming majority walk to school, while bicycling and bus use are minimal. Students who walk to school often do so as part of a larger group of schoolmates, attend schools that are located rela- tively near their house, are faced with relatively few major road crossings during their journey, and belong to families that are less likely to own a car. Children who are driven to school (only 13.5% of our sample) usually have higher-income families and live farther from the school. Although Tirana’s high residential density has some environmental drawbacks, we deem it positive in that its result is that most students live very close to their schools and in close proximity to classmates walking to school. The fine grain pattern of the urban public school network contributes to the short distances between schools and homes. We provide a number of recommendations for the promotion of walking in home-school trips, as well as for the future physical development of the city and the school network. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The transition countries of Eastern Europe, are experiencing a fast shift from mass transit to automobile travel, with grave conse- quences in terms of traffic flow, road safety, livability, and environ- mental quality. In these settings, home-school travel, which represents a substantial share of daily trips, is often overlooked in sustainable mobility discourses. Most of the existing studies on this topic, which are conducted in Western nations, stem from the concern that there is a link between active forms of school tra- vel (walking or biking) and the general health of schoolchildren (van Loon and Frank, 2011). However, home-school travel also has an impact on urban livability. While research on this topic Eastern Europe is virtually non-existent, based on adult travel studies (see Pucher and Buehler, 2005) children school travel here is expected to raise major safety, equality, and environmental qual- ity concerns. In turn, it is evident that the urban form and ameni- ties determine whether students travel actively and autonomously to school (van Loon and Frank, 2011). The study area of our research is Tirana, the capital of Albania. The purpose of this study, conducted in 2012, is to examine how characteristics of the physical environment influence children’s travel mode choice between home and school in relation to socio-economic variables. In the framework of this study, we car- ried out a travel behavior survey of approximately 500 students in grades 6 through 8 from four schools and found that an over- whelming majority of students (78.9%) walk to and from school. This finding contrasts with a general perception in Tirana, perpet- uated by the local media, that a substantial portion of children are driven to school. While Albania’s economic development stage may largely explain this outcome, a number of environmental fac- tors may account for it too. For example, compactness is generally found to contribute to the minimization of travel distances (Boussauw et al., 2012). A synopsis of Tirana’s recent urban devel- opment patterns and mobility issues provides an understanding of the dynamics that lead to such a high portion of students walking to school. The first two parts of the article provide the study context. They contain a brief discussion of the current trends in transport plan- ning in Eastern Europe, and present an overview of the relevant lit- erature on children’s travel, focusing on active school commute prevalence and correlates. (Active travel includes walking and cycling, but the latter is insignificant in Tirana.) The third part of the article describes Tirana’s urban setting, with particular focus on spatial structure, mobility, and education provision. The fourth part describes the study design and methodology and presents the results using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2014.05.012 0966-6923/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: TU Delft, OTB Research Institute for the Built Environment, Spatial Planning and Strategy Chair, PO Box 5030, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 15 2783047. E-mail address: d.pojani@tudelft.nl (D. Pojani). Journal of Transport Geography 38 (2014) 55–65 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Transport Geography journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo