Overview

Abstract (English)

This research employs time use data from the Canadian General Social Survey of 2010 to explore the links between travel, activity participation, and subjective well-being. Planners have long discussed the desire to improve quality of life, but research on this topic has been more nascent. Quality of life, or subjective well-being (SWB), describes the extent to which the overall quality of life is positively assessed. In this study, structural equation models are estimated to identify links between daily travel times, time use, and subjective well-being. Models are estimated independently for men and for women and results suggest important gender differences in how targeting travel and time use outcomes could improve quality of life. Policy objectives to reduce travel times target alleviating a travel outcome which disproportionately influences men, who travel 15 minutes more per day than women. While policymakers justify interventions on the basis of reducing travel times, this study suggests that daily travel times are unassociated with subjective well-being among either gender. But employed women participate in two more time-use incidents per day than employed men, on average – partly based on evidence of gender role differences when children are in the household. Despite higher activity participation rates among women, a disconnect remains between desired and observed activity participation. Participating in more activities is linked with greater subjective well-being among women, but not among men. Using shadow prices of SWB to monetize the value of participating in additional activities, results suggest that modest increases can create valuable SWB-related benefits. These marginal benefits are highest for those women currently engaging in few activities and for women from high-income households. But redressing the disconnect between demand for activities and potential to engage in them is not only a function of transportation-land use policies which foster the potential to participate in activities through travel. Cultural norms about gender divides in child-related responsibilities also appear to play an important role.

Abstract (French)

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