Transportation project evaluation is heavily focused on the assessment of travel time and cost savings to the end users. There are, however, other intangible benefits to transportation improvements manifested in lower anxiety, greater pleasure, etc. which might be more important to travelers. In fact, the importance of planning for sustainable transportation systems which promote travelers’ well-being has been widely recognized in the transportation and urban planning literature. The potential spillovers in feelings of well-being among the work, travel, and home domains have also made the study of transportation stressors a topic of interest to many researchers.

The objectives of this research are to measure travel well-being using self-reported and physiological indicators, model well-being as a function of its causes and its effect on behavior, and assess the policy implications. We present a motivation and a framework for the measurement and modeling of travel well-being. The measurement of well-being and the in-depth understanding of travel behavior will potentially derive new travel demand functions, enhance travel forecasts, and provide a new framework for policy evaluation and design.