Effects of meteorological factors on students’ commute to high school

Abstract

Limited physical activity and a sedentary lifestyle are common among young people. The use of a bike sharing system (BSS) to commute to and from school seems to be a good way of promoting physical activity among students. However, choosing a means of transportation may be influenced by meteorological conditions. This study aimed to determine how meteorological conditions affect students’ use of BSS for commuting to and from high school. A self-organizing maps analysis was conducted to obtain information on the characteristics of the students’ daily commute. Use of the BSS and the meteorological condition of each day were selected as input variables. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to determine the main effect of the cluster on the input variables. The results revealed six clusters (profiles) of days. Four clusters represented favorable meteorological conditions and higher BSS use. The remaining clusters grouped unfavorable conditions and lower BSS use. Comfortable temperatures (14.4–22.6 °C), low humidity, and light-to-moderate breeze (i.e. wind) had a positive influence on the use of the BSS by the students. Conversely, temperatures <14.2 °C and high humidity (>73 %) had a negative effect on the use of the BSS. Furthermore, rainfall had a nonlinear effect on the use of the BSS, whereas heavy precipitation had a negative effect on use of the BSS. However, light precipitation had no effect on BSS use. These findings indicate that meteorological conditions have a significant effect on the use of a BSS for active commuting to school by young students. Efforts should be made to provide better BSS infrastructure to encourage young people to use the BSS for active commuting.