Abstract
The daily trip to and from school represents an important and necessary travel activity for millions of children across the United States. Depending on several factors such as proximity from home, parent or guardian preference, and availability of travel mode options, school children may walk, bicycle, ride in a personal vehicle, travel in a yellow school bus, or use some form of public transportation. These travel decisions are also influenced by safety or perceived safety concerns.
In this study, the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) was used as a benchmark to assess school transportation safety trends over the last two decades. Although there were some limitations to the dataset, which will be carefully explained in detail, the overall trends indicate that the trip to and from school remains a relatively safe activity, particularly along rural facilities where positive results were identified across four key metrics. Along urban facilities, slightly increasing trends were observed in the annual number of fatalities and in the number of non-motorists involved in a fatal crash, suggesting that opportunities remain to enhance and to improve the travel environment for school children.