Children’s organised out-of-school activities as a source of travel demand: a critical scoping review

Recent decades have seen a shift from unstructured play towards organised out-of-school activities (OOSA) for children, now often considered a mandatory part of children's upbringing. While travel for OOSA likely has a significant contribution to the notorious car-dependence of families, it remains under-researched. This literature review aims to frame and appraise this complex source of travel demand, to provide an empirical and conceptual starting point for further research. We conducted a structured search across 17 leading transport and mobility journals, followed by forward and backward snowballing. Despite a rigorous search strategy, we found only 21 empirical studies on the mode-share and determinants of travel to children's OOSA. Drawing on social practice theory, the review evaluates not only material and infrastructural conditions for travel, but also the cultural scripts and emotional dimensions underpinning participation in OOSA. Following the literature review, we specifically consider the role of parenting as a bundle of practices, including ideals and practices of care and cultivation, all expressed through children's participation in, and travel for, OOSA. The findings reveal a consistent reliance on private cars across diverse geographic contexts, often exceeding car use for the school journey. While structural factors - such as the spatial distribution of activities and poor alignment with public transport - help explain this tendency, they are closely intertwined with cultural scripts of parenting and the emotional dimensions of chauffeuring. In conclusion, the review identifies four possible avenues for further research, including more basic data and nuanced understandings of destinations for OOSA travel, cross-cultural comparisons of access and the cultural shapers of participation, a better understanding of how dimensions of intensive parenting influences travel demand and further engagement with adjacent academic fields and non-English sources to better understand this important aspect of familial travel.