A new survey on
commuting released today
by International Business
Machines Corp. found that
for many people in
metropolitan areas around
the world, getting to work is
more painful endeavor than
ever. In some cases,
people’s negative feelings
about driving may have
more to do with their
emotional states than actual
driving conditions.
The IBM study looked at the
daily commute in a number
of economically important
international cities and
reveals a surprising pattern.
Even though commuting
has generally become more
bearable during the past
year, drivers are
complaining a lot more
about traffic and the stress
and anger it causes.
The annual global
Commuter Pain study
shows that in some cities
more people now are taking
public transportation rather
than driving, compared
with a year ago. In many
cities a much higher
percentage of respondents
said roadway traffic has
improved “somewhat” or
“substantially” in the past
three years.
Still, a growing number of
respondents say traffic on
the road “has increased
their levels of personal
stress and anger and
negatively affected their
performance at work or
school,” the survey says.
“Commuting doesn’t occur
in a vacuum,” said Naveen
Lamba, IBM’s global
intelligent transportation
expert. “A person’s
emotional response to the
daily commute is colored by
many factors – pertaining
both to traffic congestion as
well as to other, unrelated,
issues. This year’s Global
Commuter Pain survey
indicates that drivers in
cities around the world are
much more unsettled and
anxious compared with
2010.”
IBM compiled the results of
the survey into its
Commuter Pain Index that
ranks the emotional and
economic toll of commuting
in each city. Higher scores
indicate more onerous
conditions. The index
reveals great disparity in
the pain of commuting in
some cities compared with
others. Montreal had the
least painful commute of
the cities in the survey,
followed by London and
Chicago.
The index includes 10
factors: 1) commuting time,
2) time stuck in traffic,
agreement that: 3) price of
gas is already too high, 4)
traffic has gotten worse, 5)
start-stop traffic is a
problem, 6) driving causes
stress, 7) driving causes
anger, traffic affects
work, 9) traffic is so bad
that driving stopped, and
10) decided not to make
trip due to traffic.
The cities scored as follows:
Mexico City: 108; Shenzhen
95; Beijing 95; Nairobi 88;
Johannesburg 83;
Bangalore 75; New Delhi
72; Moscow 65; Milan 53;
Singapore 44; Buenos Aires
42; Los Angeles 34; Paris
31; Madrid 28; New York
City 28; Toronto 27;
Stockholm 26; Chicago 25;
London 23; and Montreal
21.
