13 - Applying a subjective well-being lens to transport equity

Abstract

This chapter focuses on equity from a subjective well-being perspective. It argues that it is in interrogating the inequalities in levels of subjective well-being and how these link to objective factors that subjective well-being can shed new light on the nature of transport equity and potential ways in which transport inequity can be mitigated. Subjective well-being is understood here as an individual's own assessment of how they feel their life is going determined by their positive and negative emotional responses and evaluations of their personal experiences. Utilizing subjective well-being indicators alongside objective indicators therefore enables researchers and policymakers to interrogate the relationship between the social environment (uncovered through objective indicators) and emotion (uncovered through subjective indicators). In this chapter we posit the day reconstruction method (DRM) as one means through which the effect of transport on subjective well-being can be analyzed. The DRM is used to assess how individual's spend their time and how they experience the various activities and contexts of their lives; combining features of time-budget measurement and experience sampling. Here we apply the DRM to understanding the levels of subjective well-being experienced by commuters using different transport modes and show how these levels of subjective well-being can be analyzed in relation to different demographics in order to understand the equity implications. This methodology and the findings it produces provide policymakers with a more holistic understanding of the effect of travel on the individual and in turn challenge policy assumptions about the most effective ways to improve well-being for the populations which they serve.