From school buses to pedestrian streets, rethinking the journey to school
Depending on where they live, children and teenagers may be able to walk to school in a few minutes or spend around ten hours a week traveling. Thinking about these journeys is not just a question of logistics and ecology, but also of equality.
Sylvain Wagnon, University of Montpellier
Every day, nearly 13 million students in France travel varying distances between their homes and their schools. Whether it takes a few minutes on foot or more than an hour by bus, this invisible time structures their days, affects their sleep, and influences their educational success.
Long neglected, this daily mobility is now the subject of renewed attention. In September 2025, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) published the first large-scale national study on the mobility of children and adolescents, including their journeys to school: school transport is now an issue of public health, equality, and ecology.
School buses and regional inequalities
School transportation has a long history. It has been a reality since the 1960s, when the first departmental services were organized to serve remote middle and high schools. In 1963, there were around 4,000 school bus routes; ten years later, there were already more than 23,000, far exceeding simple population growth. This development responded to a demand for equal access to education in rural areas.
Today, responsibility for this area lies with the regions following the 2017 reform. They organize transportation for more than 2 million students in non-urban areas, in addition to approximately 2 million students transported by urban networks (buses, trams, subways).
In total, nearly one-third of schoolchildren use public transportation every day to get to school. The current shortage of school bus drivers is undermining equal access to education, especially in rural areas that depend on this mode of transportation. It reveals a growing regional divide: while some students benefit from regular transportation, others face longer or compromised journeys.
What means of transportation can be used to get to school?
The 2025 study by Ademe confirms the central role of the car in home-to-school journeys: one-third of children use it every day, and this proportion rises to 54% in the French overseas departments and regions.
The figures are similar to those already reported in a 2020 study: walking accounts for 25% of journeys, ahead of urban public transport (19%), school buses (18%) and bicycles (2%). While walking remains the dominant mode of transport for short journeys, its use declines as students get older.
However, these national averages mask strong local dynamics: in some cities, bicycle use is growing significantly, driven by the creation of safe bike lanes. In addition, a number of initiatives are emerging to promote active travel between home and school. The walking bus, which has been the subject of several studies, involves supervised walking routes organized by parents, volunteers, or local authorities. It requires organization and regulation, but has been shown to have real benefits for students' health.
For its part, the velobus, groups of children on bicycles accompanied by adults, has been a real success, as has the hippobus, a horse-drawn carriage trialed in certain municipalities. These initiatives reflect a growing desire on the part of local authorities and parents to rethink the school commute.
The geography of school journeys reveals significant disparities. In some rural areas, a middle school student may spend up to two hours a day traveling to and from school, compared to just a few minutes for a student living in the city center.
In addition tothese regional inequalities, there are also social inequalities: the cost of transportation passes can be a heavy burden on low-income families, despite regional or departmental subsidies. Some local authorities offer free passes, while others impose variable rates based on income, which fuels a sense of injustice.
The ADEME study also highlights a decline in independence: the age at which children first travel alone is now 11.6 years old, compared to 10.6 years old for their parents. Parental fears about safety partly explain this decline, with a marked difference between genders. Girls are considered more vulnerable: 40% of parents believe that they are more exposed to assault, which delays their independence.
The weight of travel time
While school transportation guarantees access to education, it also weighs heavily on daily life. In some areas, this time can amount to up to ten hours a week spent on a bus, reducing the time available for homework, leisure, or rest.
Students who spend more than an hour a day commuting sleep on average half an hour less than their classmates who live closer to school. A survey of high school students revealed this correlation. School transportation therefore has a significant impact: it directly influences educational success and well-being.
A study of adolescents shows that long commutes not only compromise sleep, but also cognitive abilities, mental balance, and school grades.
School streets: laboratories for innovation
Inspired by Great Britain and Belgium, "school streets" have been developing in France since 2019. The principle is simple: temporarily close the street in front of a school to traffic during school drop-off and pick-up times. The benefits are numerous: a measurable reduction in air pollution, less noise, an improved sense of safety, and an increase in active mobility.
In Paris, there are more than 300 traffic-calmed streets as of the start of the 2025 school year, covering nearly half of all elementary schools. The movement is now spreading to large cities, as well as medium-sized towns and villages, which see it as a practical tool for making journeys between home and school safer and more pleasant, as well as reducing air pollution. These measures also help to increase children's independence, allowing them to travel alone or with their peers in a calmer, less stressful environment.
School streets allow us to test new ways of organizing public space, while promoting collective ownership of the street by children and families. They are not just a technical development, but also a social and political reflection on the place we want to give children in the city.
Turning the school commute into an educational opportunity
These experiments invite us to change our perspective on school transportation, which is not wasted time, but rather a learning opportunity. Walking or cycling to school contributes to physical health and independence. The creation of safe environments transforms the journey to school into an opportunity for socialization between parents, adults, and children. In some schools, it is integrated into educational projects focusing on sustainable mobility or learning about the local area.
School transportation is therefore much more than a technical system: it structures the daily lives of millions of students, reveals regional divides, and directly influences educational success. Long overlooked, this time deserves to be recognized and rethought. Because the educational experience is not limited to the classroom; it begins on the journey to school and continues into children's daily lives.
Sylvain Wagnon, Professor of Education Sciences, Faculty of Education, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.