Travel and residual emotional well-being

- The study focus on residual emotional well-being and satisfaction with travel.
- Positive emotional responses result in mood changes.
- Satisfaction with the commute is affected by emotional responses.
- Satisfaction with the commute is affected by travel mode and travel time.

This study addresses the question of how work commutes change positive versus negative and active versus passive mood experienced after the commutes. Analyses are presented for 230 time-sampled morning commutes to work, made by 146 randomly sampled people in three different Swedish cities, asking them to use smartphones to report mood before, directly after, and later in the work place after the commute. The results show that self-reported positive emotional responses evoked by critical incidents are related to mood changes directly after the commute but not later in the day. It is also shown that satisfaction with the commute, measured retrospectively, is related to travel mode, travel time, as well as both positive and negative emotional responses to critical incidents.