Experiencing pleasantness vs. unpleasantness of daily travel – Exploring gendered travel time use and non-travel dimensions in Germany

A recent strand of literature in transportation research focuses on understanding the effects of trip characteristics and travel-related attitudes on travel satisfaction. To date, hardly any studies focus on the effect of gendered travel time use and non-travel time use on travel satisfaction. We use the German Time Use Survey 2012/13 (GTUS) and employ multilevel binary logistic regression analysis to study the effects of various factors (respondents’ sociodemographics, travel behaviour, gender interactions with travel time use, non-travel time use and work-family interactions) on reports of pleasant and unpleasant travel in separate models. Three key findings of the study are: (1) The effects of interaction between gender and travel time use on pleasantness of travel show that activities during travel (i.e. passive activities and ICT use) strongly predict pleasant travel for men, while in contrast these activities are positively associated with unpleasant travel for women.(2) Time spent on paid work is positively associated with reports of pleasant travel, while time spent on leisure and work-family time conflicts are negatively related to pleasant travel; (3) Personal income, travel behaviour (time spent travelling by any mode except cycling, commute distance, travelling alone, evening trips), time spent on leisure and family role overload (a greater share of unpaid work than of paid work) significantly increase the likelihood of travel being experienced as unpleasant, while female gender and age make it less likely that travel is perceived as unpleasant. We draw conclusions for policies to help address the gendered experience of travel as being pleasant or unpleasant. • Investigates respondents’ retrospective evaluation of pleasantness and unpleasantness of daily travel. • Travel and non-travel behaviour affects the (un)pleasantness of travel. • Gendered travel time use determines both pleasantness and unpleasantness of travel. • Work and family interactions (role overload and role conflict) determine pleasantness of travel. • Calls for work, family and gender-sensitive planning to enhance travel quality.