Satisfaction and travel choices

Abstract

Linkages between activities, travel, and overall subjective well-being (SWB) are analyzed. SWB is broadly defined as the evaluation of the cognitive and affective components of human experiences. Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being (SWB) and the application of SWB research to travel are reviewed, with a particular emphasis on a modelling framework linking SWB to travel attributes and travel behaviour. Empirical evidence from the measurement of SWB in activities and travel has shown that travel plays a role for overall well-being and that the timing at which travel well-being is measured matters due to the dynamic nature of well-being. It is argued that SWB and utility are the same but a distinction needs to be made among the different notions of utility. Consequently, an extended random utility model framework with SWB measures as additional indicators of utility is presented, and an application of this framework to travel mode choice is shown to yield an improved model of travel mode choice.