Abstract

Commuting times and distances between home and work continue to increase in many North American cities with negative impacts to the environment as well as adverse health consequences for the commuters, because of stress from the commuting trip. There are very few empirical studies, however, on the differences between various modes of commute on commuters stress and mood. This study provides a comparison of drivers, public transport users and cyclists in terms of stress and mood elicited by each commute mode. On a sunny day in June 2013, 123 employees of a company rated their mood and stress immediately after they arrived at work. As was expected, those 25 employees who cycled to work on that day arrived at work less stressed than their counterparts who arrived by car. However, there was no difference in mood among the three mode users.