I previously investigated the cannon and claims around commute times and found that the research cited didn’t support those claims. I never wrote that up (sorry).
I came to question the cannon when I talked to all my local rats about how they commute and their preferences.
I found that contrary to the claims in cannon—people liked their public transport commute and were using it to read, talk to friends and generally enjoy their time to unwind from work on the way home. The research talks about time of commute but generalises from car driving and traffic sitting commute time.
Of the people I talked to who walked or bicycled to work, they also enjoyed the commute and the excuse for incidental physical exercise. (the research in the cannon agrees with this)
On the topic of driving to work. The research proposes that driving with underlying health conditions like obesity that make sitting still for long periods of time (potentially in pain) is the cause of the lack of happiness. Back problems are bad for long driving as well.
Ammended claims: travel to work by exercising methods, or find a way to enjoy your commute (audio books, books, social etc.)
*cannon is the word I use to describe community cannon.
Thanks for pointing this out. Research particularly seems to show that people who commute by bike are the most satisfied, followed by walking, then trains, then buses and carpools (which are almost as bad as driving):
Personally, I normally commute by a combo of bike and train, and I find that on days when I have to drive instead it does add stress, especially if traffic is bad.
I previously investigated the cannon and claims around commute times and found that the research cited didn’t support those claims. I never wrote that up (sorry).
I came to question the cannon when I talked to all my local rats about how they commute and their preferences.
I found that contrary to the claims in cannon—people liked their public transport commute and were using it to read, talk to friends and generally enjoy their time to unwind from work on the way home. The research talks about time of commute but generalises from car driving and traffic sitting commute time.
Of the people I talked to who walked or bicycled to work, they also enjoyed the commute and the excuse for incidental physical exercise. (the research in the cannon agrees with this)
On the topic of driving to work. The research proposes that driving with underlying health conditions like obesity that make sitting still for long periods of time (potentially in pain) is the cause of the lack of happiness. Back problems are bad for long driving as well.
Ammended claims: travel to work by exercising methods, or find a way to enjoy your commute (audio books, books, social etc.)
*cannon is the word I use to describe community cannon.
Thanks for pointing this out. Research particularly seems to show that people who commute by bike are the most satisfied, followed by walking, then trains, then buses and carpools (which are almost as bad as driving):
http://web.pdx.edu/~jbroach/654/homework/Smith_2013.pdf
Personally, I normally commute by a combo of bike and train, and I find that on days when I have to drive instead it does add stress, especially if traffic is bad.