The perception gap in school commuting: explaining the mismatch between objective conditions and travel behavior in a...

Active commuting to school is an important contributor to children's daily physical activity, yet it has declined significantly in many urban contexts. While previous research has examined environmental and social influences on school travel behavior, less attention has been given to how individuals interpret these conditions and how such interpretations shape behavior. This study addresses this gap by introducing the concept of the "perception gap," defined as the mismatch between objective environmental conditions and how these conditions are perceived by individuals. Using data from 1,218 respondents in Najran City, Saudi Arabia, this study integrates objective indicators of the built environment with perception-based and social factors within a unified analytical framework. Descriptive analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation, and binary logistic regression modeling were employed to examine the relationships between objective conditions, perception-based variables, and the likelihood of active commuting behavior. The results indicate that distance remains the most influential structural constraint, while perception-based factors-particularly social conditions and perceived safety-play a significant role in shaping travel decisions. In addition, objective factors such as long distance and traffic accidents were found to significantly reduce the likelihood of active commuting. Importantly, the findings suggest that individuals may respond not only to objective environmental conditions but also to how those conditions are perceived and interpreted. This study contributes by proposing the perception gap as a conceptual perspective for understanding potential discrepancies between objective environmental conditions and how those conditions are interpreted by individuals, building upon previous perception-based approaches that often examined environmental and behavioral factors separately. The findings underscore the importance of pairing infrastructure improvements with perception-oriented and policy-based interventions to promote active commuting in sprawling, car-dependent urban environments.