- Swapping the car for walking or cycling to work makes people calmer
- Study also finds the longer people spend walking, the happier they are
- Commuting by train or bus also improves well-being compared with drivingÂ
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Walking to work reduces stress and improves brain power, researchers say.
Adults who swapped the car and started walking or cycling became calmer and found it easier to concentrate.
A study of 18,000 Britons also found that commuting by train or bus improved well-being compared with driving.
Road rage: Driving to work can cause stress levels to increase and concentration to worsen
Walking or cycling to work, demonstrated by Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, ‘cheers commuters up’, researchers say
Lead researcher Adam Martin, from the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School, said that despite the crowds and disruption, walking to bus stops or stations and being able to relax on the journey ‘cheers people up’.
Two-thirds drive to work, 18 per cent use public transport, 11 per cent walk and three per cent cycle.
The study, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, also found the longer people spent walking or cycling, the happier or less stressed they were.Â
However, stress levels and inability to concentrate worsened if they spent more time in the car.
Research earlier this year found that commuters had small but statistically significant lower scores on all measures of well-being.
The worst effects were witnessed in those whose journeys last between 61 and 90 minutes. But when commuting time reaches three hours or more, the negative effects disappear, the report said.
‘The effects of commuting on personal well-being were greatest for anxiety and happiness, suggesting that commuting affects day to day emotions more than overall evaluations of satisfaction with life or the sense that daily activities are worthwhile,’ the report stated.
Dr Daniel Newman, from Cardiff University’s Sustainable Places Research Institute, said at the time: ‘This report says what many of us who spend our mornings and evenings sat in traffic jams or packed like sardines on a rail carriage already know: commuting can be a chore.’
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