Daily commuting contributes to people's well-being, provided the necessary travel time is not excessive. That’s what longitudinal research by PhD candidate Yinhua Tao shows. Planners should therefore design compact cities with lots of mixed functions. Tao: “After all, urban planning is all about people.”
Being able to walk or cycle to work within 15 minutes is ideal for the average Dutchman. Commuters in London or in China’s modern metropolises might prefer to take the subway, but otherwise their preferences are about the same: if travel time is limited to fifteen minutes or so, they experience the commute from home to work as pleasant. It gets even better if they can work from home a few days a week. Working at home all the time is not possible for most people, but when it does come to that, well-being usually decreases, according to Tao’s research.
The PhD candidate in Urban Studies started his research when the covid epidemic brought most commuting to an abrupt end. ‘It was an ideal real-world experiment,’ Tao says. ‘People were faced with the question of how they perceived commuting, because it was suddenly no longer a part of their everyday lives.’
Scientific analysis of the long-term effect of commuting behavior on well-being appeared to be in a debate, so Tao decided to find out. He himself used to travel an hour daily to and from work in Shanghai, and he disliked it. In this he is not unique, according to the sources he consulted. For many surveyed who were accustomed to long commutes, working from home in corona time meant great relief. Bicycle commuters, on the contrary, felt trapped.
Working close to home
Tao looked at data from China, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Especially in the UK, commuting has been well mapped via surveys, as well as the reasons for change in commuting behavior. From all the data comes back an ideal commute time of roughly 15 minutes. An ideal residential neighborhood is surrounded by necessary amenities such as work and shopping. In a “15-minute city” residents can perform many of their daily activities in the same place, motorized transportation is not required. ‘That makes them happy, so urban planners should focus on mixed-use development,’ Tao says. ‘After all, urban planning is all about people.’
"From all the data comes back an ideal commute time of roughly 15 minutes.”
Without a car
A good urban planning layout gives residents an understanding of how to get around without a car. That creates a sense of freedom and also aligns with sustainability goals. After all, inviting people to leave the car at home leads to a reduction in congestion and CO2 and exhaust emissions. It also means that efficient and reliable public transportation facilities should be part of urban plans.
It almost sounds as if commuting is all-important to human happiness. That's not the case, Tao says. ‘But it does touch all kinds of domains of life: work and family, but also leisure time. So, it definitely plays an important role.’
After his doctorate, Tao will do a follow-up study in the UK on long-term behavioral changes. It should give an idea, for example, why adults who have their first child switch en masse to the car, despite the happiness that cycling and walking give.
Published: June 2023
