The concept of a Walking School Bus (WSB) has existed in Japan for over half a century, but is a relatively new concept in Anglo-Saxon countries, tracing its origins to the early 1990s. In Anglo-Saxon countries the WSB is seen as a safe means of addressing the negative impacts of increased school trips by car. Recently in Japan, a discussion as to the value and appropriateness of the shuudantogeko (the Japanese WSB) has emerged as some suggest that it could reduce safety. This paper introduces and compares the two WSB systems, and then uses traffic fatality data from Canada and Japan to compare travel-to-school in an open choice system with a country where WSB is common practice
