Socio-Economic Determinants of Education-Based Travel in Austria: Evidence from a Spatial Interaction Modelling Perspective

Abstract

Education-based travel constitutes a substantial portion of the total volume of passenger traffic. Nonetheless, so far neither transport nor education policy has recognised it as a matter of interest. A study on the commuting behaviour of secondary-level students in Austria provides detailed information on the structure of commuting relations and characteristic differences between certain types of schools. Furthermore, the influence of specific socio-economic factors – share of people with foreign citizenship, unemployment rate, share of people with tertiary education – on the propensity to commute into another school region has been estimated by spatial interaction modelling. The results suggest that processes of segregation and specialisation are at work which, eventually, may lead to growing distances between residential and school locations.