The significance of transport mobility in predicting well-being

•Psychological needs mediate the transport mobility and well-being relationship.•Psychosocial factors further justify investment in transport mobility.•Transport policy can help to articulate well-being standards into practice.•Interdisciplinary collaboration can elucidate the full benefits of mobility.

Transport mobility provides increased opportunities for individuals to undertake fundamental tasks beyond the home environment, such as going to work and purchasing essential goods. Moreover, transport mobility may also play an important role in helping to satisfy inherent psychosocial needs which are deemed necessary for well-being, such as relating well with others, feelings of competence and mastery, and heightened autonomy. Exploring these relationships more fully is the focus of the current study. Based on responses from 435 participants from Melbourne, Australia, hierarchical regression analyses were undertaken to test whether transport mobility predicts subjective well-being as mediated by psychological well-being (N=435). Support was found for a full mediation model, whereby transport mobility predicted subjective well-being through the mediating variables of environmental mastery, positive relations with others and self acceptance. Thus, the impact and benefits of transport mobility extend to psychosocial factors related to well-being. Although additional work is needed to confirm these findings using varied samples and measurement approaches, this is a valuable outcome which provides some justification for developing policy and investing resources into improving transport mobility to promote highly desirable outcomes related to well-being.