Transportation and well-being: exploring post-secondary students' commute satisfaction and its relationship to campus participation and success

This Major Research Paper examines the influence of commute satisfaction on campus participation and perceived academic success of post-secondary students as indicators of their well-being. Travel and attitudinal data was analyzed for 1,931 students from Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario to determine if students perceive their commute to be a barrier to their campus participation and academic success, and if this perception changes with commute satisfaction. A large number of students reported their commute was a barrier to their campus participation and academic success, and binomial logistic regressions revealed a significant positive association between commute satisfaction and these well-being indicators. Travel mode, travel attitudes, student type, and age were found to be statistically significant correlates of commute satisfaction. These findings suggest post-secondary administrators and urban planners can improve student well-being by implementing policies to increase commute satisfaction.  Key words: travel satisfaction; subjective well-being; travel mode; post-secondary students; commute