Travel Pattern and Influential Factors of Mode Choice: Perspective to School Going Children of Dhaka City , Bangladesh

The travel behaviour of school going children is complex, and directly related to several spatial, transportation and socio-economic issues. Since there is no designated school catchment area in Dhaka, and high-quality schools are geographically distributed across the City, students require to travel longer distances for good schooling. Parents prefer private cars for their children while Dhaka City inherits a poor public transportation system, and limited school bus program. Again, school bus provision may not be appropriate as the bus service is not reliable to both the parents and children due to high travel time. Hence, the City is experiencing continued growth of automobile in the streets. As a result, severe congestion problem is common in Dhaka, which is one of the densest cities of the World. Looking into this situation, the study emphasizes on travel pattern, mode choice factors of school trips and the hassles children face for school trips in Dhaka City.