Does commuting affect health and well-being: If so for whom?

通勤是一天中的一个重要组成部分，对于那些工作的人来说，这限制了个人的时间使用。近年来，通勤时间有所增加;这一趋势并非英国独有。人们非常担心通勤负担对健康和福祉的潜在有害影响。与此同时，人们普遍关注工作人口的压力和心理问题，这似乎是由于对时间的要求越来越高，以及维持适当的工作与生活平衡的问题。例如，通勤是由其不可预测性和感知到的失控引起的压力的原因，导致焦虑、血压升高和肌肉骨骼问题（Evans等人，2002; Kolowsky等人，1995）;并可能导致无聊和社会孤立（Gatersleben & Uzzell，2007; Putnam，2000）。另一方面，一些评论家指出了通勤的潜在积极方面，提供了单独工作、阅读或思考的时间，或者只是放松工作（里昂等人，2007; Ory和Mokhtarian，2005;雷德蒙和Mokhtarian，2001）。这些潜在的竞争效应中哪一个占主导地位，可能部分取决于交通方式、个人对旅程的控制程度以及通勤时间。如果通勤是导致劳动者幸福感降低的原因，那么政策制定者和雇主应该关注;这不仅是因为人口的主观幸福感本身可能是政策目标，而且还因为，正如布赖森等人（2015）所表明的那样，工人幸福感和企业生产率之间存在明显的正相关关系。估计CT对主观幸福感的影响，剥离混杂因素的影响，是很重要的，适当地告知政策。然而，建立因果关系是困难的，由于各种因素，这是很大程度上未观察到的研究人员，如个人和家庭的喜好，决定了主观幸福感和CT。我们的工作开发了一种方法来建立这种因果关系的基础上观察冲击通勤时间由于无论是搬迁的就业地点或交通基础设施的变化。我们的目的是确定（因果关系）是否，如果是这样，谁通勤赋予负效用通过在主观幸福感或健康的损失。然后将探讨确定CT对个体的不同H&SWB影响的机制，特别关注性别差异和家庭内部决策。例如，与男子相比，妇女在通勤时可能更看重所放弃的时间，因为她们要承担更多的家庭和育儿义务。然后，我们将寻求以货币形式量化个人因通勤而面临的负效用。鉴于通勤距离（以及时间）通常是在家庭层面上与居住和工作地点的决定一起确定的，一个重要的相关问题是，个人所经历的通勤负担是否会被其他家庭成员的主观幸福感所抵消。我们的目标是通过两个大规模的家庭调查来协调这些研究问题的证据。研究的一个重要方面是将调查结果转化为政策制定者和其他参与通勤辩论的人可以理解的结果，它对健康和福祉的影响以及不同的交通方式。我们预计，该部将对许多新出现的结果感兴趣，特别是了解按性别和其他群体分列的旅行负担差异以及个人对通勤时间的评价。为此，我们与交通部持续对话（见影响一节）。

Commuting is an important part of the day for those who work placing a constraint on an individual's use of time. Recent years have seen an increase in time devoted to commuting; a trend which is not unique to the UK. There is much concern about the potential detrimental effect to health and well-being the burden of commuting imposes. This can be seen alongside a more general concern with levels of stress and psychological problems among the working population, which appear to arise from an ever-increasing demand on time and the problems of maintaining an appropriate work-life balance.There are a number of reasons why commuting might adversely affect health and well-being. For example, commuting is a cause of stress arising from its unpredictability and perceived loss of control leading to anxiety, raised blood pressure and musculoskeletal problems (Evans et al., 2002; Kolowsky et al., 1995); and can lead to boredom and social isolation (Gatersleben & Uzzell, 2007; Putnam, 2000). Some commentators, on the other hand, point to potential positive aspects of commuting, in providing time alone to work, read or think, or to simply wind down following work (Lyons et al., 2007; Ory and Mokhtarian, 2005; Redmond and Mokhtarian, 2001). Which of these potentially competing effects dominates is likely to be determined in part by mode of transport, the degree to which an individual has control over the journey and the time spent commuting. If commuting is the cause of lower well-being in the workforce, policy makers and employers should be concerned; not only because subjective well-being of the population may be a policy target in itself, but also because, as Bryson et al (2015) have shown, there is a clear positive relationship between worker well-being and firm productivity. Estimating the effect of CT on SWB, stripped of the influence of confounding factors, is important to appropriately inform policy. Establishing causality is however difficult, due to a variety of factors, that are largely unobserved by the researcher, such as individual and household preferences, determining both SWB and CT. Our work develops a method for establishing this causal effect based on observing shocks to commuting time due to either a relocation of place of employment or a change in transport infrastructure. Our aim is to establish (causally) whether, and if so, for whom commuting confers disutility through a loss in either SWB or health. The mechanisms that determine the differential H&SWB effects of CT across individuals will then be explored, with a particular focus on gender differences and intra-household decision making. For example, compared to men, women may place a higher valuation of time foregone when commuting due to greater family and childcare commitments. We will then seek to quantify in monetary terms the disutility individuals face from commuting. Given that commuting distance (and hence time) is often determined at the household level in conjunction with decisions over where to live and work, an important related question is whether the burden of commuting experienced by an individual is offset by gains in SWB of other household members. We aim to reconcile evidence on these research questions across two large and substantial household-based surveys.An important aspect of the research will involve translating the findings such that they are understandable to policy makers and others involved in debates around commuting, its effect on health and wellbeing and different modes of transport. We expect that that many of the emerging results will be of interest to the Department, in particular understanding differences in the burden of travel by gender and other groups and the valuation individuals place on commuting time. To this end we have an ongoing dialogue with the Department of Transport (see section on impact).