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bentarm comments on Open Thread, July 1-15, 2013 - Less Wrong
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So, everyone agrees that commuting is terrible for the happiness of the commuter. One thing I've struggled to find much evidence about is how much the method of commute matters. If I get to commute to work in a chauffeur driven limo, is that better than driving myself? What if I live a 10 minute drive/45 minute walk from work, am I better off walking? How does public transport compare to driving?
I suspect the majority of these studies are done in US cities, so mostly cover people who drive to work (with maybe a minority who use transit). I've come across a couple of articles which suggest cycling > driving here and conflicting views on whether driving > public transit here but they're just individual studies - I was wondering if there's much more known about this, and figured that if there is, someone here probably knows it. If no one does, I might get round to a more thorough perusal of the literature myself now I've publicly announced that the subject interests me.
I think it entirely depends on what you do during your commute.
A lot of drivers who drive during rush hour feel stress because they get annoyed at the behavior of other drivers. That's terrible for the happiness of the commuter.
Traveling via public transport also gives you plenty of opportunities to get upset over other people. It provides you the opportunity to get upset if the bus comes a bit late.
If you travel via public transport you can do tasks like reading a book that you can't do while driving a car or cycling.
Does anyone else experience the phenomenon of perceiving the duration of a commute to be shorter when the distance is shorter? For example, it feels like it takes less time or is more enjoyable to walk 3/4 mile in 15 minutes than to travel a few miles by subway in 15 minutes. I think its because being close in proximity makes me feel like "Hey I'm basically there already" where as traveling a few miles makes me think "I'm not even in the same neighborhood yet" even though both of these take me the same amount of time.
For me an important aspect is feeling of control. 15 minutes of walking is more pleasant that 10 minutes of waiting for bus and 5 minutes of travelling by bus.
Every now and then, I decide that I don't have the patience to wait 10 minutes for a bus that would take me to where I'm going in 10 minutes. So I walk, which takes me an hour.
I had the opposite effect recently - I thought that I'd save time by waiting for the bus, but it turns out that walking gets me to work from the train about 12 minutes sooner. Coming back, I don't have a ridiculous wait, so I still take the bus.
I could do even better if I got some wheels of some sort involved. Maybe it's time to take up skateboarding. Scooter? Bike seems like it would be too cumbersome, even if I can get one that folds up.
If the commute is mostly flat, consider Freeline skates. They take up much less space than any of the mentioned wheels; the technique is different from skateboarding but the learning curve isn't any worse.
I have discovered that I am so terrible at skateboarding and rollerblading that self-preservation requires me to stop trying.
Not in general, but I recognize your example. Walking is pleasant and active and allows me to think sustained thoughts, so it makes time 'pass' quickly. Whereas riding the subway is passive and stressful and makes me think many scattered thoughts in short time, so it makes time 'pass' slowly, making the ride seem longer. Also, if you walk somewhere in 15 minutes that probably takes about 15 minutes, but if you ride the subway for 15 minutes that probably takes more like half an hour from when you leave home to when you get to your goal.
More generally, I've noticed I tend to underestimate how much time it passes when I'm directly controlling how fast I'm going (climbing stairs, driving on an open road, reading) and overestimate it when I'm not (using an elevator, driving in congested traffic, watching a video).
Short-distance public transport is an exception: once I'm on the bus, it feels like it takes 5 minutes to get from home to the university, but it actually takes 20.
I download loads of music and audiobook and books (though it's more bothersome to read while moving) and listen to them on my commute to work, it takes me around 45 minutes commute to get to work via train system and it takes the same time to get back home. Doing this, I totally don't mind the commute. Look forward to it even since It was the only time I get to read or listen to anything.
Better in what way?
According to Freakonomics, public transportation may actually be less efficient than driving: http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/11/07/can-mass-transit-save-the-environment-right-wing-or-left-wing-heres-a-post-everybody-can-hate/
Apologies, I should have made this clearer (and will probably edit the original to do so). Commuting is terrible for the happiness of the commuter. The rest of the post should be interpreted in light of this.
As for the Freakonomics research - it seems quite implausible that the marginal commuter has a bigger impact by taking transit rather than a car (I seem to remember listening to an episode of Freakonomics radio about this discussion, and being disappointed by the lack of marginal analysis).
I wonder whether it would help to use smaller buses/shorter trains at off-peak hours.