Impact of home-school commuting mode choice on carbon footprint and sustainable transport policy scenarios

Car use for commuting to school is responsible of a significant amount of CO2 emissions, negatively impacting on climate change and calling for action. We collected 8,343 responses through an online survey before the Covid19 pandemic (November/December 2019) from a sample of schools located in the province of Varese (Northwest of Italy). First, the study estimates the home-school commuting CO2 emissions from students and school staff of the selected schools, both in the starting scenario and in policy scenarios, inducing different potential shifts from car towards more sustainable transport means. Second, it determines the most relevant factors of transport mode selection for school commuting. The findings show that students at high school, even if their trips are generally longer, have lower CO2 emissions than teachers/staff and students of primary and middle schools, because of a higher intensive use of public transport. The optimistic scenario of a 75% shift from car use to walking, for homeschool distances up to 2 km, and to public transport, for distances between 2 and 10 km, would save a big amount of CO2 emissions, included in the range 60-67%. Travel distance and time are the two most relevant factors, when students and teachers/staff select the transport means for school commuting. The identification of appropriate sustainable transport policies should consider the geographical, urban, and infrastructural characteristics of the place in which each school is located and of the travel routes.