The boffins have proved it: Commuting makes you miserable
Who’d be a commuter?
Escalating train fares, Tube strikes, people sneezing without covering their noses. My soul’s getting heavy just thinking about it.
And now even the boffins at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are weighing in, performing a complex “regression analysis” – a way of comparing lots of different variables, in this case from people’s lives.
If you spend seemingly endless hours a week trekking into the City from the banker belt, maybe look away now. The statisticians conclude:
Holding all else equal, commuters have lower life satisfaction, a lower sense that their daily activities are worthwhile, lower levels of happiness, and higher anxiety than non-commuters.
As anyone who’s undertaken long coach trips can testify – “Taking the bus or coach to work on a journey lasting more than 30 minutes was the most negative commuting option in personal well-being terms. Of the various public transport options, commuting to work by bus is most negatively associated with personal well-being.”
But with the cost of living in London increasingly steep, what are the alternatives? The research shows that shorter commutes – traveling along a rail line – aren’t so bad.
“Taking the train to work has no significantly negative effect on any aspect of personal well-being for journeys up to 30 minutes,” it says, with the same going for the Tube, light railways (such as the DLR), or trams.
So there we have it – find a nice spot with cheap house prices that has a direct rail line taking you straight into the City in 15 minutes. Lewisham, anyone?