This paper examines the relationship between active travel to school and the well-being of children and adolescents from public schools in Bogota, Colombia. We focus on “Al Colegio en Bici (ACB)”, a 10 year intervention that facilitates active commuting through cycling in organised caravans involving pedagogical activities.
The paper applies a conceptual framework for transport well-being to assess the contributions of different components of the ACB programme to the material, relational, and subjective dimensions of well-being in school children and adolescents. This qualitative research operationalises the transport well-being framework through content analysis of secondary data. At the individual level, findings suggest that cycling-based active commuting has helped ACB beneficiaries become more autonomous and empowered as agents of change. Collectively, the programme has also contributed to active social participation in the space of the bike caravans to school, enhancing familiarity with the city and the environment and strengthening civic and cycling culture.
The paper reflects on these findings to identify key programme components and opportunities for improvement in pedagogy and scale, ultimately assessing its potential for addressing outcomes beyond mobility and road safety in Bogotá and similar cities in the global south.