A new approach for measuring travel well-being that accounts for the routine nature of travel is described. An experiment was conducted at three employment centers in Switzerland requiring habitual car drivers to switch temporarily to public transportation for their commute to work. The idea isthat after the public transportation trial, the participants would think of their happiness as they reconsider their mode choice decisions. Participants' travel happiness, perceptions, attitudes, and mode choice were measured before and after the intervention. Two main findings emerged from theanalysis: first, the measures of happiness with the commute by car collected before and after the public transportation trial were different, with generally a greater happiness with car reported after the experiment. Using the happiness measures as additional indicators of utility, a greater correlation was found between utility and the "after" measure, which supports the hypothesis that the measure of travel happiness collected when people evaluate their options is a better measure than that collected when theyare in a routine. The implications for the measurement of well-being could apply to other domains involving routine behaviour. A number of participants continued to commute by public transportation after the required trial, which suggests that a temporary change in behaviour might be effective in inducing behavioural modification or at least in affecting people's choice sets. This has policy implications for public transportation agencies or institutions that are trying to encourage car drivers to shift to public transportation. For the covering abstract see ITRD E145999
Abstract