What Determines the Psychological Well-Being during Commute in Xi’an: The Role of Built Environment, Travel Attitude, and Travel Characteristics

Dong Wei, Xiaoshu Cao and Miaomiao Wang
Additional contact information
Dong Wei: School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Xiaoshu Cao: School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Miaomiao Wang: Lingnan (University) College, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-21

Abstract: The commute well-being (CWB) has been associated with the mental health and depends on the positive or negative emotions that occur during the daily commute. This paper analyzes the influencing factors and discusses the structural relationship between CWB and influencing factors, based on our evaluation of the results for daily CWB between different travel modes. We based our analyses on a CWB survey conducted in the central city proper of Xi’an. In contrast to previous studies, this paper investigates two commuting phases, in the morning and evening, to better analyze daily CWB. To conduct a more comprehensive analysis, in addition to considering multi-stage combined travel, the subjective and objective aspects of factors influencing CWB were deepened and expanded. The measurement was based on the Satisfaction with Travel Scale, which was developed based on a method for measuring subjective well-being. The average CWB level of each model was compared by analyzing the variances. The influencing factors were determined by stepwise regression, and the influence mechanism was analyzed using a structural equation model (SEM). The results indicate that CWB in Xi’an was highest for walking, which was followed, in order, by motorcycle, electric bicycle, staff shuttle bus, bicycle, metro, car, taxi, and bus. The result reflects that commuting by bus is associated with more negative emotions in Xi’an. The results of SEM indicate that the built environment does not directly affect CWB, but it will act on CWB by affecting other factors. The travel attitude, commute mode choice, and other travel characteristics affect each other and affect CWB directly and indirectly. Other travel characteristics has the largest total effect on CWB, and the travel attitudes have the largest direct effect. Without considering the travel attitude, reducing traffic congestion, commuting time, and transfer times can significantly improve CWB and reduce negative emotions in the future in Xi’an.

Keywords: commute well-being; built environment; travel attitude; travel characteristic; Xi’an (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/5/1328/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/5/1328/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:5:p:1328-:d:210620

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().