Happiness in urbanizing China: The role of commuting and multi-scale built environment across urban regions

• Published in: Transportation research. Part D, Transport and environment Transport and environment, 2019-09, Vol.74, p.306-317
• Main Authors: Yin, Chaoying, Shao, Chunfu, Dong, Chunjiao, Wang, Xiaoquan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Built environment; Commuting time; Happiness; Multilevel ordered logit model; Urbanization rate
• ISSN: 1361-9209; 1879-2340
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trd.2019.08.010

•This study examines the influence of commuting time on resident’s happiness across urbanization rates.•The influences of neighborhood and city-level built environment on resident’s happiness are revealed.•People own a strong mental endurance of commuting in areas with high urbanization rates.•City-level built environment only influences happiness in areas with low urbanization rates. Although the relationship between commuting time and residents’ happiness has been widely investigated, few studies have examined how the connection varies with urbanization levels. Using 7,774 individual samples across China, this study employs a multilevel ordered logit model to examine how commuting time is correlated with residents’ happiness. The effects of both the neighborhood and city-level built environment are revealed. Our findings show that commuting time is an essential factor correlated with residents’ happiness and the correlation varies across urbanization levels. People from cities with high urbanization rates (>70%) have a strong mental endurance of commuting time, whereas commuting time is more influential on residents’ happiness in cities with low urbanization rates (