Abstract
This paper focuses on a particular form of high mobility, namely the long journeys to work generated by cross-border job market. More precisely, it studies the impact of such behaviors on well-being by analyzing the relationships between mode choice, transport-related attitudes, socio-demographic and spatial attributes, and the level of satisfaction in the context of cross-border long commutes to Luxembourg. The statistical modelling is rooted to a conceptual framework that emphasizes the mutual dependencies between attitudes, mode choice, and satisfaction. Based on a survey among long-distance commuters (N = 3093) held in 2010 and 2011, two ordered logistic regressions, one of which including latent constructs of transport-related attitudes derived from a structural equation modelling, are developed to explain satisfaction in commuting. Main findings are: (1) Travel-related attitudes influence satisfaction with travel more than socio-demographic attributes; (2) public transport users are globally more satisfied in commuting than car drivers; (3) the socio-economic model of satisfaction is plagued by omitted variables issues; (4) the attitude model of satisfaction drops all but one socio-economic attributes (education remains) while improving adjustment (Pseudo-R-squared = 0.57 versus 0.09; BIC = 2953 versus 6059) and avoiding omitted variables bias. The effect of attitudes and other latent constructs is of paramount importance, even concealing most socio-demographic attributes to assess satisfaction. The conclusion is devoted to a discussion on the sustainability of these cross-border long commutes from the individual, social, and environmental points of view.
Highlights
Spatial and land use structures evolve thanks to transport networks improvement while tertiary competitive sector concentrates in large cities, often leading to longer commutes [1]
More and more studies are devoted to the different forms of high mobility, and in particular long-distance commuting, few works talk about their impacts on travel satisfaction, mode choice, and transport attitudes (e.g., [9]), this paper aims at bridging this gap and underline peculiarities of cross-border long commuting in Luxembourg
The latter combines (1) a SEM that models the structural relationships among attitudes and latent variables of likely behavior and (2) a logistic regression that uses the latent constructs of the SEM to model the marginal impact of socio-economic attributes, local context attitudes, and stated incentives to use public transit on travel satisfaction
Summary
Spatial and land use structures evolve thanks to transport networks improvement while tertiary competitive sector concentrates in large cities, often leading to longer commutes [1]. Several expressions qualify the phenomenon of high mobility: “mega commuters”, “long commuters” [4], “extreme commuters” [10,11,12], “super-commuters” [13], “inter-jurisdictional commuters” [5], “persevering commuters” [14], or “intensive travelers” [15] They refer to employees travelling at least two hours total commute per day to reach their workplace and return home. In Luxembourg, with an average daily travel time for journeys to work of 1 h and 40 min [16], most cross-border workers rely on long commuting. The number of those workers living in Belgium, France, and Germany commuting to Luxembourg grows steadily, from 105,000 in 2003 to 204,000 in 2020, leading to congestion issues and longer distances
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