“I care about transport sustainability, but i have children”: Open-text surveys highlight the concerns of families with children

Abstract

• Transport-survey respondents have negative views of public transport for children. • Time, cost, safety, and comfort concerns shape families’ mobility choices. • Unmet transport needs limit mobility capabilities for families with children. • Limited mobility capabilities risk increased car use and social exclusion. • Open-text responses reveal unmet mobility needs, informing equitable transport design. The importance of providing access to quality public transport has been discussed in numerous literature and reports. Despite growing recognition of the need for inclusive public transport, the specific mobility needs of children and their caregivers remain largely overlooked in transport planning and evaluation. Conventional assessments—which rely on structured, expert-driven criteria such as accessibility, punctuality, and safety— often fail to capture the nuanced capabilities and unequal access experienced by underrepresented groups, such as families with children. This study addresses this gap by adopting an inductive approach to analyze open-text responses from survey data collected between 2022 and 2023 by the Swedish Public Transport Association. Employing sentiment and content analysis, we investigated how the survey respondents address children-related accessibility challenges and concerns about traveling by public transport while accompanying children. Approximately 15 % of the survey respondents answered the open-text questions, with around 3 % (415 individuals in 2022 and 588 in 2023) specifically mentioning the words “child” or “children.” Reviewing the responses, we identified four key concerns that constrain the capabilities of children and their caregivers: (1) time-management pressures, (2) affordability and value concerns, (3) safety concerns, and (4) comfort and convenience limitations. Through the lenses of transport justice and capability theory, we argue that capability deprivation could reinforce car dependency or reduce mobility and social participation opportunities for families with children. The results underscore the need to integrate child- and caregiver-specific needs into public transport planning and design. Furthermore, this study highlights the value of unstructured public feedback in revealing unmet mobility demands and nuanced quality expectations, which are critical for ensuring equitable access to sustainable transport for all citizens.

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