Commuting and Wellbeing
Lead Research Organisation:
University of the West of England
Department Name: Faculty of Environment and Technology
Abstract
The proposed study will generate novel understanding of the process by which commuting behaviours influence personal wellbeing over time. There is growing recognition that traditional measures of economic growth (like GDP) do not necessarily imply improving quality of life across the population. In acknowledgement of this, the UK government has committed to improving their understanding of personal 'wellbeing'. In general terms, wellbeing refers to the extent to which people's lives are going well and this can be affected by lifestyle practices that may influence physical or mental health. Given that commuting is a regularly repeated activity for the working population, it has been suggested that certain travel behaviours, such as long commutes or cycling regularly, could worsen or improve an individual's health and wellbeing over time. However, good evidence is lacking to confirm this.
The study will make use of the Understanding Society study, a unique data resource that has been tracking the lives of members of 40,000 households since 2009/10. The same participants have been surveyed once every year, making it possible to understand how and why their lives are changing over time. The proposed study will analyse the first six waves of Understanding Society data. The analysis will identify how the commuting behaviours of employed adults have changed over the period and establish whether and how commuting has affected different aspects of their personal wellbeing. The longitudinal data will allow analysis which considers whether effect takes place after cause and whether greater exposure leads to larger effect. These criteria for causation have not been tested previously. For instance the study will examine if individuals with longer commute times suffer from higher stress levels and reduced leisure time and consequently report lower personal wellbeing overall. By comparison, do those that start walking to work feel that their physical health improves and stress levels reduce, and hence report better wellbeing overall? The study will seek to address such questions.
The proposed research has been co-designed by a research team from the University of the West of England (UWE) and policy researchers at the Department for Transport (DfT). DfT has identified specific evidence needs relating to commuting and wellbeing. The research team comprises travel behaviour experts and statisticians from UWE, a health economist from Rand Europe (Adam Martin), and Dr Adrian Davis, an expert in the relationship between transport and health. DfT will chair a project steering group and be joined as project partner by Department of Health and What Works Centre for Wellbeing. A stakeholder interest group will also ensure close links with policy and practice over the course of the study, Outputs from the project will include policy briefing notes and policy toolkit, co-produced by the project partners and the team of researchers. This will showcase new evidence on the relationships between commuting and wellbeing and be used in practice to identify policies and interventions to improve wellbeing through 'healthy commuting' across the working population.
The study will make use of the Understanding Society study, a unique data resource that has been tracking the lives of members of 40,000 households since 2009/10. The same participants have been surveyed once every year, making it possible to understand how and why their lives are changing over time. The proposed study will analyse the first six waves of Understanding Society data. The analysis will identify how the commuting behaviours of employed adults have changed over the period and establish whether and how commuting has affected different aspects of their personal wellbeing. The longitudinal data will allow analysis which considers whether effect takes place after cause and whether greater exposure leads to larger effect. These criteria for causation have not been tested previously. For instance the study will examine if individuals with longer commute times suffer from higher stress levels and reduced leisure time and consequently report lower personal wellbeing overall. By comparison, do those that start walking to work feel that their physical health improves and stress levels reduce, and hence report better wellbeing overall? The study will seek to address such questions.
The proposed research has been co-designed by a research team from the University of the West of England (UWE) and policy researchers at the Department for Transport (DfT). DfT has identified specific evidence needs relating to commuting and wellbeing. The research team comprises travel behaviour experts and statisticians from UWE, a health economist from Rand Europe (Adam Martin), and Dr Adrian Davis, an expert in the relationship between transport and health. DfT will chair a project steering group and be joined as project partner by Department of Health and What Works Centre for Wellbeing. A stakeholder interest group will also ensure close links with policy and practice over the course of the study, Outputs from the project will include policy briefing notes and policy toolkit, co-produced by the project partners and the team of researchers. This will showcase new evidence on the relationships between commuting and wellbeing and be used in practice to identify policies and interventions to improve wellbeing through 'healthy commuting' across the working population.
Planned Impact
The research will generate a detailed understanding of how commuting behaviours impact on personal wellbeing. The main beneficiaries of this evidence will be policy makers and delivery agents with interests in transport, employment and public health, working at national and local levels. The evidence will be used to identify policies and interventions to improve wellbeing through 'healthy commuting'.
The proposal has been co-produced with our national policy partners - the Department for Transport (DfT) (lead policy partner), Department of Health (DH), and the What Works Centre for Wellbeing (WWCW) - with their specific evidence needs in mind. The policy partners will be represented on a project steering group, convened at the beginning of the study and chaired by the DfT. The steering group will meet every three months to assist with shaping the research activities (most crucially at the project outset) and to ensure that the study delivers cross-cutting policy relevant insights.
To ensure broader engagement with the full range of organizations with interests in transport, health and employment (both governmental and non-governmental), a Special Interest Group (SIG) will also be convened (represented by for example, the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transport, Confederation of British Industry). The SIG will receive summaries from each of the substantive work packages and SIG members will also be invited to attend a policy workshop. This will provide a forum for transport and public health practitioners to examine the new evidence on commuting and wellbeing and to identify policy actions. The outcomes from the workshop will be documented in an online 'commuting and wellbeing policy toolkit', communicating key findings and mapping these to policy objectives and suggested interventions.
Dr Ben Clark will spend five days embedded at the DfT to co-develop policy briefing notes and slide packs. Findings will also be presented at an end of project showcase. Representatives from relevant government departments and academia will be invited to attend. The briefing notes and slide packs will be published on a project website as well as the Local Government Association Knowledge Hub to ensure that the findings reach local government officers working in transport, employment and public health.
In addition to the direct benefits of the new evidence, the project will generate a longitudinal data set (complete with linked-data from external data sources) ready for further analyses of travel behaviour and wellbeing. A training event will be held to ensure that policy analysts are aware of the data potential and how it may be exploited. The research team will also identify data gaps and provide recommendations on beneficial new data and how it may be generated.
There is worldwide interest among transport researchers on how travel influences wellbeing. UWE will invite researchers working in this area to participate in an international workshop on the theme of travel behaviour and wellbeing. Researchers will benefit from the opportunity to learn about the latest research methods and findings. At least three academic journal papers will be produced and presented at academic conferences spanning the disciplines of transport and health.
The project team will also seek opportunities to engage directly with the public on how individuals can achieve 'healthy commuting'. This will be through collaboration with the WWCW, who have experience of securing funding for wellbeing public dialogue projects. Newsworthy developments will be publicised to the general media via press releases. Finally, a non-technical article summarising key findings will be submitted for publication in a practitioner periodical.
The proposal has been co-produced with our national policy partners - the Department for Transport (DfT) (lead policy partner), Department of Health (DH), and the What Works Centre for Wellbeing (WWCW) - with their specific evidence needs in mind. The policy partners will be represented on a project steering group, convened at the beginning of the study and chaired by the DfT. The steering group will meet every three months to assist with shaping the research activities (most crucially at the project outset) and to ensure that the study delivers cross-cutting policy relevant insights.
To ensure broader engagement with the full range of organizations with interests in transport, health and employment (both governmental and non-governmental), a Special Interest Group (SIG) will also be convened (represented by for example, the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transport, Confederation of British Industry). The SIG will receive summaries from each of the substantive work packages and SIG members will also be invited to attend a policy workshop. This will provide a forum for transport and public health practitioners to examine the new evidence on commuting and wellbeing and to identify policy actions. The outcomes from the workshop will be documented in an online 'commuting and wellbeing policy toolkit', communicating key findings and mapping these to policy objectives and suggested interventions.
Dr Ben Clark will spend five days embedded at the DfT to co-develop policy briefing notes and slide packs. Findings will also be presented at an end of project showcase. Representatives from relevant government departments and academia will be invited to attend. The briefing notes and slide packs will be published on a project website as well as the Local Government Association Knowledge Hub to ensure that the findings reach local government officers working in transport, employment and public health.
In addition to the direct benefits of the new evidence, the project will generate a longitudinal data set (complete with linked-data from external data sources) ready for further analyses of travel behaviour and wellbeing. A training event will be held to ensure that policy analysts are aware of the data potential and how it may be exploited. The research team will also identify data gaps and provide recommendations on beneficial new data and how it may be generated.
There is worldwide interest among transport researchers on how travel influences wellbeing. UWE will invite researchers working in this area to participate in an international workshop on the theme of travel behaviour and wellbeing. Researchers will benefit from the opportunity to learn about the latest research methods and findings. At least three academic journal papers will be produced and presented at academic conferences spanning the disciplines of transport and health.
The project team will also seek opportunities to engage directly with the public on how individuals can achieve 'healthy commuting'. This will be through collaboration with the WWCW, who have experience of securing funding for wellbeing public dialogue projects. Newsworthy developments will be publicised to the general media via press releases. Finally, a non-technical article summarising key findings will be submitted for publication in a practitioner periodical.
Publications
Chatterjee K
(2019)
Commuting and wellbeing: a critical overview of the literature with implications for policy and future research
in Transport Reviews
Clark B
(2019)
How commuting affects subjective wellbeing
in Transportation
| Description | Commuting consumes about one hour per day for the average full-time commuter working in England and is a routinely performed activity. The 'Commuting and Wellbeing Study' set out to identify the impacts of commuting on different aspects of personal wellbeing. The study used data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (otherwise known as Understanding Society), which tracks the lives of a large, representative sample of households in England. This enabled an examination of how changes in different aspects of personal wellbeing from one year to the next were related to changing commuting circumstances for more than 26,000 workers in England over a five-year period. The analysis indicated that, all else being equal, every extra minute of commuting time reduces job satisfaction, reduces leisure time satisfaction, increases strain and worsens mental health. The effects of commuting on employee wellbeing were found to vary depending on the mode of transport used to get to work: • Those who walk or cycle to work do not report reductions in leisure time satisfaction in the same way as other commuters, even with the same duration of commute. This implies active commuting is seen as worthwhile use of time. • Bus commuters feel the negative impacts of longer journey times more strongly than users of other modes of transport. This could relate to the complexity of longer journeys by bus. • Longer duration commutes by rail are associated with less strain than shorter commutes by rail. This may be explained by those on longer rail journeys being more likely to experience comfortable conditions to relax or work. • Those who normally work from home are found to have higher job satisfaction and leisure time satisfaction. However working from home is clearly not possible for everyone on a daily basis. These results have particularly important implications for employers. An additional 20 minutes of commuting each day was found (on average) to have the equivalent effect on job satisfaction as a 19% reduction in income - this is a loss of £4,080 per annum for someone earning £21,600 (the median value for the sample). A gender difference was revealed for this result with longer commute times having a more negative impact on women's job satisfaction than men's. This is likely to be related to the greater household and family responsibilities that women tend to have. Whilst we found that longer commute times have adverse wellbeing effects for job satisfaction, and even more markedly for leisure time satisfaction, they were not found to have a large impact on life satisfaction overall. Our analysis showed that this is because longer commute times are taken on for jobs which provide higher salaries and other benefits which serve to increase life satisfaction. This does not mean that the negative wellbeing impacts of longer commutes can be disregarded. We found that workers with prolonged periods of commuting over 45 minutes (one-way) have consistently lower life satisfaction over time than other workers and commutes of this duration are less likely to be sustained over time than shorter commutes. |
| Exploitation Route | The project was undertaken in partnership with Department for Transport and involved a steering group which included representatives from Department of Health, Department for Communities and Local Government, Office for National Statistics and the What Works Centre for Wellbeing (WWCW). Following the end of project showcase event, the study team have been invited to present the findings to the Strategic Council for Wellbeing at Work (an initiative of WWCW) and to officers working on different aspects of social policy at Bristol City Council. The aim of these activities is to identify deliverable policy responses at a local and national level, drawing on the study findings. Dissemination activities have also led to follow-up engagement with WorkWise, a not for profit organisation that promotes 'Smarter Working' practices. There is potential to influence guidance on working practices, placing greater emphasis on the impact of commuting on employee health and wellbeing. In relation to academic outcomes, the study team hosted a one-day symposium on commuting and wellbeing, which drew together a group of leading researchers from continental Europe and the US. Having established this international network of transport researchers with interests in wellbeing, the speakers are now working together to co-author an evidence review on the topic of commuting and wellbeing. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Transport |
| URL | https://travelbehaviour.com/outputs-commuting-wellbeing/ |
| Description | The wellbeing of the population has become a major concern for researchers and policy makers. The journey to and from work consumes about one hour per day for the average commuter and two hours per day for one in seven commuters. It has been found to be one of the least enjoyable daytime activities. Commuting is therefore a potentially relevant factor for the personal wellbeing of the working population. We found that how long it takes to get to work affects wellbeing in a number of ways. Each additional minute of commuting time (all else being equal) reduces job satisfaction, reduces leisure time satisfaction, increases strain in people's lives and worsens mental health. The mode of transport makes a difference. Those who walk or cycle to work do not report reductions in leisure time satisfaction in the same way as other commuters. Those with long commutes by rail do not have the level of strain of those with long commutes by car. Those who work from home are found to have higher job satisfaction and leisure time satisfaction than those who travel to work. Our findings have particularly important implications for employers. An additional 20 minutes of commuting each day has (on average) the equivalent effect on job satisfaction as a 19% reduction in income - this is a loss of £4,080 per annum for someone earning £21,600 (the median value for our sample). We also found that employees with longer commute times are more likely to change job, which has implications for staff retention. The overall message for employers is that job satisfaction can be improved if workers have opportunities to reduce their time spent commuting, to walk or cycle to work and to work from home. The first priority after completing the study was to disseminate the findings to potential users of the research. We produced a summary report in a form that could be easily understood by non-academics and made it available in hard copy and soft copy (see https://travelbehaviour.com/outputs-commuting-wellbeing/). We invited project partners and members of our stakeholder interest group to our end of project showcase, hosted by the Department for Transport on 11th September 2017. The event provided a valuable opportunity for us to present our findings and discuss their implications with an audience of over 60 delegates drawn from central government (including the Departments of Transport, Health, Communities and Local Government, and Work and Pensions), local authorities, academia and various non-governmental organisations. At the same time, we produced a press release which was picked up extensively by the media and wrote web blogs for What Works Centre for Wellbeing (https://whatworkswellbeing.org/blog/commuting-and-employee-wellbeing/) and Work Wise (https://www.workwiseuk.org/blog/2017/11/14/guest-blog-smarter-commuting-is-about-mixing-it-up-by-kiron-chatterjee-associate-professor-centre-for-transport-society-university-west-of-england-bristol). We also took the opportunity to give presentations of our research findings to staff at Bristol City Council, Strategic Council for Wellbeing at Work and Sustrans. We have developed an impact plan which involves pursuing three connected objectives: • Employer support for improved wellbeing of commuters • Monitoring of wellbeing of commuters • Policies to encourage commuting that improves wellbeing At this stage we have particularly focused on the first of these objectives. We have held meetings with institutions/networks representing the interests of employers and workers - two at a national level (Work Wise, Strategic Council for Wellbeing at Work) and one at a local level (Bristol City Council). We are seeking to maintain a dialogue with them and see if they can help us ultimately to reach employers to encourage them to act to improve the wellbeing of commuters. We were invited to give a short presentation of our research findings at the launch of a new citywide initiative in Bristol called Thriving at Work on 17 April 2018 which was attended by over 150 organisations. We invited employers who were interested in exploring further the impact of commuting on wellbeing at work to get in touch with us. We have produced a briefing note with input from the Thriving at Work Programme Lead at Bristol City Council which summarises research findings on the importance of commuting for the wellbeing of workers (including the business impacts that might follow from this) and recommends actions that employers can take to support commutes that enhance wellbeing. We have held a meeting so far with the wellbeing group of one large employer in Bristol where we discussed issues their staff face with commuting and ideas on steps that could be taken to help them. We will continue this engagement and start engagement with one or two other employers and treat these as pilot initiatives to test what advice we can offer in relation to commuting to support staff wellbeing and evaluate how useful this is to the employers. After these pilots, we will consider how employer support for improving the commuting and wellbeing of staff could be offered more widely, potentially via a suitable partner organisation such as a wellbeing consultancy or training provider. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Transport |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Access to Transport and Life Opportunities |
| Amount | £52,065 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | CCZZ17A10 |
| Organisation | Department of Transport |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2018 |
| End | 03/2019 |
| Description | Article in ESRC Society Now Winter 2018 edition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Opinion piece article to spread the key messages from the study and to encourage actions to reduce the negative impacts of commuting on wellbeing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-events-and-publications/publications/magazines/society-now-magazine/ |
| Description | Blog on Understanding Society website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Spread the key messages from the study and to encourage actions to reduce the negative impacts of commuting on wellbeing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/2017/10/24/job-satisfaction |
| Description | Blog on What Works Centre for Wellbeing website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Blog to spread the key messages from the study and encourage interest in acting to reduce the negative impacts of commuting on wellbeing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.whatworkswellbeing.org/blog/commuting-and-employee-wellbeing/ |
| Description | Centre for Transport and Society Winter Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The presentation prompted questions and discussion afterwards |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/et/research/cts/presentations.aspx |
| Description | End of project showcase event at Department for Transport |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The study report was launched and the findings were presented and discussed with a range of different policy stakeholders representing transport, health, employment and planning. The event has led to interest from a number of organisations in disseminating the findings more widely and in working together on actions to address negative wellbeing impacts of commuting. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://travelbehaviour.com/2017/11/27/study-findings-implications-for-policy-and-practice/ |
| Description | International Association of Travel Behaviour Research Conference 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Raised awareness on how travel behaviour (in particular commuting) impacts on wellbeing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Participation in quarterly meeting of UK Strategic Council for Wellbeing in Work (part of What Works for Wellbeing) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presented the study findings to the Council members and explored implications with them. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation at Centre for Transport and Society Winter Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented the study findings to local and regional transport professionals to encourage interest in actions to reduce negative wellbeing impacts of commuting. This led to invitations from Bristol City Council and Sustrans to present the research to wider audience and to discuss possible actions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation at symposium for transport professionals in Netherlands |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at symposium for transport professionals in Netherlands (Mobility Panel Netherlands symposium). Raised awareness of potential for obtaining strong evidence on travel behaviour and wellbeing relationship. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://english.kimnet.nl/publications/presentations/2020/09/28/looking-back-at-the-4th-mpn-symposiu... |
| Description | Presentation at the Sustainable Transport & Health conference 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The audience included practitioners from a range of disciplinary backgrounds including transport and health and the presentation prompted a lively debate about the impact of commuting on wellbeing. The presentation was subsequently written up in Local Transport Today ((LTT 717, p.10) - a national periodical. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation of study findings at Bristol City Council |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Reach out to a wider audience with the study findings and explore impact opportunities. This has led to an initiative with the Bristol City Council officer responsible for wellbeing at work for us to link with employers in Bristol to explore what steps can be taken to improve the commutes of their staff to improve wellbeing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation of study findings to Sustrans |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Raise awareness of impacts of commuting on wellbeing, discuss implications and explore opportunities to work together on initiatives to reduce negative impacts of commuting on wellbeing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation to the UK Civil Service Social Impacts Task Force |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Findings from our assessment of the link between commute duration and life satisfaction were presented to the cross government Social Impacts Task force (through a verbal presentation and via a briefing note. see https://travelbehaviour.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/b2-commutinglifesat.pdf). The presentation prompted a discussion of the role of commuting in public health policy. There was particular interest in our estimates of the monetary value of commute time. This has led to further dialogue with civil servants from the Treasury and the Department for Transport. We are jointly examining the potential to develop new methods of valuing commute time using revealed preference surveys like the UK Household Longitudinal Study. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-impacts-task-force-update-on-recent-work |
| Description | US Transportation Research Board Conference 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An international audience of around 100 academics and practitioners attended our presentation on the relationship between commute duration and life satisfaction. The presentation prompted a lively discussion and provided a valuable international networking opportunity. We have subsequently organized an international symposium on commuting and wellbeing, inviting two international speakers that were present at this event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |