Being on the move can spiral our mood up or down. There is well-known evidence that walking and cycling can directly improve our mental health as well as our physical health; many of us have experienced feelings of freedom when driving a car or riding a bicycle; as well as the moments of calm when sitting in a comfortable train, being carried across the country. Yet public transport can induce stress when crowded, as can a commute by car and evidence tends to show that commuting in general is not enjoyed. Not moving when we should be is even worse: surveys of wellbeing 'in the moment' show that one of the very few things which people rate as worse than commuting is waiting while commuting: waiting in a traffic jam, or waiting for a bus that seems like it will never come.

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4 September 2024     Paper Number CEPOP65

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This CEP occasional paper is published under the centre's Community Wellbeing programme.