Does commuting affect health and well-being: If so for whom?

Commuting is an important part of the day for those who work placing a constraint on an individual's use of time. Recent years have seen an increase in time devoted to commuting; a trend which is not unique to the UK. There is much concern about the potential detrimental effect to health and well-being the burden of commuting imposes. This can be seen alongside a more general concern with levels of stress and psychological problems among the working population, which appear to arise from an ever-increasing demand on time and the problems of maintaining an appropriate work-life balance.

There are a number of reasons why commuting might adversely affect health and well-being. For example, commuting is a cause of stress arising from its unpredictability and perceived loss of control leading to anxiety, raised blood pressure and musculoskeletal problems (Evans et al., 2002; Kolowsky et al., 1995); and can lead to boredom and social isolation (Gatersleben & Uzzell, 2007; Putnam, 2000). Some commentators, on the other hand, point to potential positive aspects of commuting, in providing time alone to work, read or think, or to simply wind down following work (Lyons et al., 2007; Ory and Mokhtarian, 2005; Redmond and Mokhtarian, 2001). Which of these potentially competing effects dominates is likely to be determined in part by mode of transport, the degree to which an individual has control over the journey and the time spent commuting. If commuting is the cause of lower well-being in the workforce, policy makers and employers should be concerned; not only because subjective well-being of the population may be a policy target in itself, but also because, as Bryson et al (2015) have shown, there is a clear positive relationship between worker well-being and firm productivity.

Estimating the effect of CT on SWB, stripped of the influence of confounding factors, is important to appropriately inform policy. Establishing causality is however difficult, due to a variety of factors, that are largely unobserved by the researcher, such as individual and household preferences, determining both SWB and CT. Our work develops a method for establishing this causal effect based on observing shocks to commuting time due to either a relocation of place of employment or a change in transport infrastructure. Our aim is to establish (causally) whether, and if so, for whom commuting confers disutility through a loss in either SWB or health. The mechanisms that determine the differential H&SWB effects of CT across individuals will then be explored, with a particular focus on gender differences and intra-household decision making. For example, compared to men, women may place a higher valuation of time foregone when commuting due to greater family and childcare commitments. We will then seek to quantify in monetary terms the disutility individuals face from commuting. Given that commuting distance (and hence time) is often determined at the household level in conjunction with decisions over where to live and work, an important related question is whether the burden of commuting experienced by an individual is offset by gains in SWB of other household members. We aim to reconcile evidence on these research questions across two large and substantial household-based surveys.

An important aspect of the research will involve translating the findings such that they are understandable to policy makers and others involved in debates around commuting, its effect on health and wellbeing and different modes of transport. We expect that that many of the emerging results will be of interest to the Department, in particular understanding differences in the burden of travel by gender and other groups and the valuation individuals place on commuting time. To this end we have an ongoing dialogue with the Department of Transport (see section on impact).

An important aspect of the research will involve translating the findings such that they are understandable to policy makers and others involved in debates around commuting, its effect on health and wellbeing and different modes of transport. We have presented our initial results (Munford, Roberts, Rice, 2016) to policy analysts at the Department of Transport (DfT: 4th May 2016) and subsequently held a meeting to discuss in greater detail the emerging findings and how these might feed into the DfT's agenda around commuting and well-being. Following this meeting the Case for Support was developed and this has been read by policy analysts at The DfT. They are supportive of this work and have provided a letter of support (see attachment) to confirm their interest. We will continue to liaise with DfT during the research and will present findings once these are available. We expect that that many of the emerging results will be of interest to the Department, in particular understanding differences in the burden of travel by gender and other groups and the valuation individuals place on commuting time. This monetary valuation can feed into cost-benefit type analysis of economic appraisals of changes to transport infrastructure and modes of transport.

We will aim to disseminate the findings of the study to academic audiences through the usual channels, including conference presentations and journal publications. We envisage two key publications; one will focus on the well-being effects of commuting; the other on broader measures of health. We will also produce short policy briefing papers which will act as a dissemination tool that may appeal to academics, but their principle purpose will be to reach a broad audience of interested potential users of this work. Each paper will also be accompanied by a post on the University of Sheffield, Department of Economics Research Blog, which primarily targets the media audience to generate interest in the research (https://medium.com/@sheffeconomics).

We will disseminate research outputs at relevant conferences - for example the Universities Transport Study Group (http://www.utsg.net/web/), which holds an annual conference designed to discuss research needs, research in progress, and to provide an opportunity for junior researchers to present papers. We will target other conferences and workshops that promote the dissemination of research related to transport and housing economics, health and well-being, together with those that actively encourage and promote participation of junior researchers.