A gendered perspective on the associations of commute duration and travel modes with commute satisfaction

Commute duration and travel modes are widely recognized as key correlates of commute satisfaction, yet existing research has largely overlooked gender differences in two important respects. First, while the relationship between commute duration and satisfaction is known to be nonlinear, it remains unclear whether this nonlinear pattern differs between men and women. Second, although the duration-satisfaction relationship varies by travel mode, potential gender differences in this moderation have been largely ignored. Using data from a face-to-face survey of 590 commuters with 1159 trips in Chengdu, China, this study fills these gaps. The results show that longer commute duration reduces satisfaction for both genders, but the relationship is nonlinear for men (declining rapidly and then stabilizing) and linear for women (declining steadily). Compared to walking, most other modes (metro, bus, cycling) are associated with lower satisfaction for the full sample. However, these negative associations are only significant for women, indicating that travel mode matters more for women's commute satisfaction. Moreover, travel mode significantly moderates the negative association between commute duration and satisfaction for men but not for women. Specifically, walking for men is the most satisfying mode for commutes shorter than 20 min but becomes the least satisfying when commutes exceed 35 min, while metro satisfaction remains relatively stable for men as duration increases. For women, no significant duration-mode interaction exists.