Peak of the Day or the Daily Grind: Commuting and Subjective Well-Being

Smith, Oliver

doi:10.15760/etd.1026

Cited by 15 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Roberts et al (2011), using annual data from the British Household Panel Survey, found that commuting has a considerable detrimental impact on the well-being of women, which may be due in part to their shorter working hours. Wheatley (2014), again using British Household Panel Survey data, found that longer commutes generated dissatisfaction among men and women, as did shorter commuting among women due to inequality in household division of labour; this is consistent with conclusions obtained by Roberts et al (2011), andSmith (2013). Part of understanding these findings is appreciating that the relationship between commuting time and well-being varies depending on both location and respondent features.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Abou-Zeid and Ben-Akiva (2011), using a web-based cross-sectional survey conducted with a convenience sample of commuters, found that commuters travelling by non-motorized modes are happier than those travelling by car or public transport. Smith (2013), using data from a web-based survey of workers in Portland, Oregon, United States, found that walking and cycling commuters have significantly higher commute well-being than transit and car commuters. Zhao and Lee (2013), surveying 2000 North Americans who commute to work or school, found that most measures of commuting happiness and satisfaction are heavily dependent on comfort and reliability ratings of commuting modes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Subjective well-being in China: how much does commuting matter?

Zhu

Chen

et al. 2017

Transportation

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With rapidly increasing urbanization and motorization in China, the effect of commuting on residents' subjective well-being (SWB) is likely growing. We used 13,261 individual, 124 city, and 401 neighbourhood samples from the 2014 China Labour-Force Dynamics Survey (CLDS 2014) and applied multilevel mixed-effects ordered probit regressions to investigate the relationship between commuting and SWB. We found huge differences between urban and rural areas in relation to commuting. Urban respondents' daily average commuting time was 0.56 h while rural respondents' daily average commuting time was 0.41 h. Further, the daily average commute time for residents living in cities with high urbanization rates ([ 70%) was longer than for those living in cities with low urbanization rates (\ 70%). The subjective well-being of residents who commute by walking or cycling was significantly lower than that of those who commute by other transportation modes. The regression results indicated that the longer the commute time, the lower the subjective well-being. Among residents who live in rural areas or cities with low urbanization, subjective well-being was more easily affected by commuting time.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subjective well-being in China: how much does commuting matter?

Zhu

Chen

et al. 2017

Transportation

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“…On the one hand, early research by Novaco and Collier (1994) does conclude that commuting satisfaction is significantly and negatively correlated with commute duration among full-time workers in southern California, while a more recent web-based survey by Smith (2013) of 828 workers in Portland, Oregon, negatively associates it with a commute by car that exceeds 40 minutes. These U.S. findings are echoed by two recent UK studies (Office for National Statistics, 2014;Roberts et al, 2011), the second of which uses British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) data to show that commute time has a significantly adverse impact on women's psychological well-being.…”

Section: Prior Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Commute time and subjective well-being in urban China

Wang

Sousa‐Poza

2018

China Economic Review

104

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Using data from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies, this study investigates the association between commute time and subjective well-being in a sample of 16-to 65-year-old employees in urban China. We find evidence that a longer commute time is associated with lower levels of both life satisfaction and happiness, especially when the commute times are extreme (≥ 1 hour per day). A multiple mediation analysis further indicates that the relation between commute time and happiness is partially mediated by time spent on daily activities, particularly sleeping. We calculate the amount of income necessary to compensate an employee's loss in well-being at approximately 82 yuan per hour of commute time, implying that, in urban China, the annual loss of well-being amounts to around 10 billion yuan. JEL Classification Codes: I31; J30; J33; R41

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“…Many of these questions were adapted from two recent Portland-area surveys: the Oregon Household Activity Survey (OHAS) (OMSC, 2011), and a survey about commute SWB conducted by Smith (2013). This section took about 5 minutes to complete.…”

Section: Your Personal and Transportation Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Positive Utility of Travel and Mode Choice

Singleton¹

2000

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Why do people travel? Underlying most travel behavior research is the deriveddemand paradigm of travel analysis, which assumes that travel demand is derived from the demand for spatially separated activities, traveling is a means to an end (reaching destinations), and travel time is a disutility to be minimized. In contrast, the "positive utility of travel" (PUT) concept suggests that travel may not be inherently disliked and could instead provide benefits or be motivated by desires for travel-based multitasking, positive emotions, or fulfillment. The PUT idea assembles several concepts relevant to travel behavior: utility maximization, motivation theory, multitasking, and subjective well-being.Despite these varied influences, empirical analyses of the PUT concept remain limited in both quantity and scope. There is a need for more fundamental development and classification of the PUT idea and its multifaceted nature. The wide variety and quality of ways to measure PUT attributes are further research challenges. Additionally, few studies investigate both major aspects of the PUT concept-travel activities and travel experiences-simultaneously. Finally, research is only beginning to examine empirical associations between PUT measures and travel behaviors such as mode choice. This dissertation addresses many of these gaps in conceptualizing, measuring, and modeling the PUT concept.First, a literature review strengthens the definition, classification, and empirical support for a PUT, defined as "any benefit(s) accruing to a traveler through the act of traveling." The two primary PUT categories are travel activities (travel-based multitasking) and travel experiences (travel subjective well-being), and the most useful PUT measures involve gathering self-reported assessments of these topics. Based on this ii review, an online questionnaire is designed and administered to nearly 700 commuters in the Portland, OR, region. The survey includes detailed questions about commute mode choice, activity participation, travel usefulness, positive emotions and fulfillment, and travel liking for a recent home-to-work trip.Next, these PUT measures are empirically examined using factor analyses, finding groupings of activities and common unobserved constructs of hedonic ("Distress," "Fear," "Attentiveness," "Enjoyment") and eudaimonic ("Security," "Autonomy," "Confidence", "Health") subjective well-being. Many of these factors exhibit large variations among travel modes-walking and bicycling commuters are the most satisfied and appear to value time spent exercising-and are predicted (somewhat less strongly) by other trip and traveler characteristics in ordered logit regression and structural equation models.Finally, integrated choice and latent variable models are estimated to examine relationships between measures of the PUT concept and commute mode choice. This is made possible by the unique dataset that collects PUT measures for not only the chosen mode but also modal alternatives. Measures of travel-based multitasking are ...

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Peak of the Day or the Daily Grind: Commuting and Subjective Well-Being

Cited by 15 publications

References 35 publications

Subjective well-being in China: how much does commuting matter?

Subjective well-being in China: how much does commuting matter?

Commute time and subjective well-being in urban China

Exploring the Positive Utility of Travel and Mode Choice

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