The effects of free-fare public transportation on the total active travel in children: A cross-sectional comparison between two Finnish towns

Free-fare public transport policies potentially increase walking to stops, but may replace other active travel modes with unknown effects on total travel. We compared behaviour of children living in a Finnish city free-fare reference city. Children were recruited from primary school grades 4–6 21 participating schools, located 11 neighborhood pairs Mikkeli (free-fare bus) and Kouvola (no bus). marked all places they visited the previous week, visit frequency, into participatory mapping survey during lesson. Active was assessed as sum round-trips home destination by (4 km/h), walking-to-bus-stop, skating/scooting (7 km/h) cycling (10 km/h). between cities linear mixed models. A 427 respondents (age mean SD 11.0 ± 0.8 years) altogether 2445 places. On average 5.7 2.2 13.8 7.2 times week. Median trip distance 521 m walking, 1794 bike, 730 bus stop. 23.3% 43.5% (bus 6.4%; bike 30.0% trips) 12.9% 59.2% 2.1%; 44.5% ≥5 trips per respectively (city p ≤ 0.006). gained more (P < 0.001). Estimated 3.19 h/week (95% CI 2.62–3.83) 3.33 (2.74–3.97) = 0.749). cycle less, walk have similar duration who do not option for their everyday trips. Walking is significant source policy can facilitate this behaviour.