Public transport and school choice influencing school segregation

Jean Ryan, a researcher at VTI, conducted the study in collaboration with Aaron Nichols from the Technical University of Munich.

– We chose to study accessibility to lower secondary schools because children of this age often begin navigating the city independently. It's also during these formative years that travel habits are typically established. Children who cycle or use public transport in their teens are likely to continue traveling sustainably as adults, explains Jean Ryan.

The municipal school choice system was introduced in Sweden a few years ago. This allows students who do not attend a school offering grades 7–9 to rank the schools where they wish to study before entering lower secondary school. School placement is then determined based on the relative proximity of the applicant students to their chosen and ranked schools. One of the aims of the school choice system was to reduce segregation.

In Malmö, public transport has also been expanded with a rail-based ring line connecting different parts of the city. The goal of the “Malmöringen” was to improve accessibility and mobility between neighbourhoods with varying socio-economic conditions in Malmö and to enhance access to education and employment opportunities.

Jean Ryan and her research colleague developed hypothetical school catchment areas and analysed how a potential redistribution of accessibility might affect the composition of the schools involved.

– Our study shows that Malmöringen has a relatively small effect on children's accessibility to different schools. Hypothetically, improved accessibility through investments in public transport and policies such as the municipal school choice system could influence school segregation. School choices that involve longer commutes may further increase the number of car journeys or make them longer. Additionally, in economically stronger neighbourhoods, there may be greater opportunities to choose a school further from home. This, in turn, could contribute to—or at least fail to reduce—school segregation, says Jean Ryan.

– It is complex to influence both school segregation and travel habits, so it is important to adopt a holistic approach when making policy decisions related to traffic and urban planning, Jean Ryan concludes.

Read more in the article How accessibility to schools is not (just) a transport problem: the case of public school choice in the city of Malmö, Sweden.

*The quotes in this article are translated from Swedish to English.