No one loves their daily commute and, according to a new report, it doesn’t love you either. Research compiled by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that daily commuting took a toll on most commuters’ sense of wellbeing.
Based largely on data from the Annual Population Survey (APS) – carried out by the ONS from April 2012 to March 2013 – the report included both employees and self-employed people who were interviewed either face to face or by telephone. Commuters were identified as people who spent one minute or more travelling to work and non-commuters were noted as people who said they worked from home in their main job. The report excluded those who said they worked in different places using home as a base or that they worked somewhere different from home. This made a final sample of about 60,200 people. Of this group, 91.5% were commuters and just 8.5% were classified as non-commuters.
The survey asked four questions on emotional health, and respondents were asked to give their answer on a scale of 0 to 10 where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’. The questions asked were:
1. How satisfied are you with life?
2. To what extent do you feel things you do in life are worthwhile?
3. How happy did you feel yesterday?
4. How anxious did you feel yesterday?
Commuters were then asked a series of questions about their travel to work, including time spent travelling and travel mode. The results of the study revealed that, on average, commuters have lower life satisfaction, a lower sense that their daily activities are worthwhile, lower levels of happiness and higher anxiety than non-commuters. However, it’s important to point out that the difference between each was small. The most noticeable factor involved in people’s sense of wellbeing was journey length. On average, those with journey times lasting between 61 and 90 minutes answered all four questions the most negatively, and those travelling only 15 minutes or less to work were the most positive. Again, however, these differences were small.
That said, the negative effects on personal wellbeing disappeared when commuting time reached three hours or more. This suggests that the small minority of people with this commuting pattern have quite different experiences to most other commuters. Moreover, the small difference between everyone’s sense of wellbeing indicates that other wellness factors are more important thant commuting. The ONS commented that ‘other factors such as higher income or better housing may not fully compensate the individual commuter for the negative effects associated with travelling to work and that people may be making sub-optimal choices.’ They added, ‘Overall, the results suggest that although physical wellbeing may be enhanced by cycling and walking, getting exercise in this way on the daily commute may not necessarily have the stress relieving qualities we would expect.’
Really, the findings of the report reflect what you know intuitively; spending ages on the travel to work makes you a little bit miserable. That said, commuting doesn’t have to impede your emotional wellness – in fact, it can be a positive activity. Look at your long commute as an excuse for some “you time”. In the car, you could listen to music, learn a language or meditate, and on public transport you could read novels. And even though there was a somewhat negative effect on those who commuted by walking or cycling modestly long journey, the health benefits are clear. Plus, as the ONS point out, ‘While commuting is a burden for the individual, other members of their household may benefit from it, for example through the additional income, improved housing and neighbourhood or a better choice of schools.’
