Evaluating Urban Commute Experience

Evaluating the Urban Commute

Experience: A Time Perception
Approach
Yuen-wah Li

Abstract

This article examines the perception of travel time and evaluation of the urban
commute experience. It reviews the literature on time perception in psychology,
positing perceived travel time as a function of commute characteristics, journey
episodes, travel environments, and expectancy. Insights from emerging behavioral
economics are drawn to illuminate evaluation of the urban commute experience.
The perception–evaluation correspondence presents the potential of a new research
approach to travel behavior. A time perception model for evaluating urban com-
mute experience is formulated to accommodate all the posited relationships, with
possible moderations by goal attainment, economic values associated, and time
urgency. Practical significance of the model is exemplified through its use in explain-
ing mode choice, and as a guide for service planning and design.

Introduction
Like many other domains of consumer behavior, travel behavior has convention-
ally been studied with the approach that treats all (including monetary and tem-
poral) aspects of evaluation of a travel experience as a single dimension. A traveler
is assumed to view temporal and monetary expenditures alike, and trade one for
another on a compensatory basis. In the transportation literature, this single mea-
sure is referred to as the “generalized cost,” and represents the overall utility (or

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Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2003

disutility) of a given commute. The conventional approach, despite its prevalence

in transportation research, has devoted inadequate attention to possible distinc-
tive features of temporal experience and expenditures. In consumer research lit-
erature, time behavior has received increasing interest over the past decade with
the growth of service industries (Carmon 1991). Yet, most of the studies have
been conducted primarily with waits (see Durrande-Moreau 1999 for a review)
among experiences of time consumption. While waiting time is just one episode
of a travel journey, the temporal experience of an urban commuter over the entire
journey has rarely been examined in sufficient detail.
Given the fact that daily commutes incur a rather substantial amount of temporal
rather than monetary expenditures, investigation of commuters’ perceptions of
the travel time and their evaluation of the travel experiences is justified. This article
discusses the perceived time (i.e., psychological time) vis-à-vis objective clock time
that one spends in daily commutes, and examines how it relates to the evaluation
of one’s travel experience. This proposed research approach is of potential to
expand the extant body of knowledge in travel behavior that rests primarily on
utilitarian assumptions. It illuminates the human processes, such as perception,
underlying the evaluation of travel experiences, rather than the evaluative out-
comes per se. The time perception approach is promising not only because it
opens up new venues for transportation research, but also because of its implica-
tion for the design and planning of transportation systems and the formulation
of transport policy. Advances in knowledge and practice as a result of innovative
research approaches should be pursued by transport planners and policy-makers
who have endeavored to promote the use of public transportation while auto
dominance (ownership and use) has been on the rise during the past decades. It is,
therefore, particularly worthwhile to focus the research context on public trans-
portation.
This article begins with a brief review of the potential contribution of time percep-
tion research to the understanding of a traveler’s temporal experience in daily
commute. Next, findings from the time perception literature are drawn and dis-
cussed as pertinent to the specific context of urban commute, with tentative
conclusions proposed in the form of research hypotheses. Then commuter evalu-
ation of travel experience, as inspired by the emerging behavioral decision theory,
is examined as a way to explore its possible connection to the perception of com-
muting time. Based on the tentative conclusions arrived, a framework proposing
time perception to be pivotal to evaluation of daily commute experience is ad-

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 Evaluating Urban Commute Experience

vanced to guide future empirical validation and further research. Lastly, summary
and concluding remarks are presented. As public transportation offers the most
diverse form of urban commute experiences, discussion and tentative conclu-
sions are made and drawn with reference to this specific context.

Concepts and Models for Time Perception

Time perception has a long history in psychology research, dating back to the late
18th century (Roeckelein 2000). Research findings have rendered a valuable source
of reference to the understanding of temporal experience of the daily commute.
This article presents a selective review of essential concepts and models from major
contributors such as Fraisse (1984), Block and Zakay 1996), Boltz (1993), and
Hornik (1992).
Time Perception
The notion of time refers to succession and duration, two different concepts but
both related to one’s experience of change (Fraisse 1984). The concept of succes-
sion involves the perception of two or more different and sequentially organized
events, whereas the concept of duration concerns the interval between two suc-
cessive events. Temporal experience refers to an individual’s perceptual physical
changes, and the duration in perception is measured against a regular sequence of
succession. Time perception, according to Fraisse’s conception, is defined as “the
attention to, or apprehension of, change through the integration of a series of
stimuli and characterized by the ability to conceive of duration, simultaneity, and
succession” (Roeckelein 2000, p. 53). It implies that time in perception bears no
straightforward relationships to physical time (Fraisse 1984). Hence, the subjec-
tive duration experienced by a traveler may be different from the objective time
passed.
In fact, this conception lies with the major research interest of time psychophysics
that concerns the psychological magnitude of the passage of time (Grondin 2001).
Evidences from the psychophysics literature have suggested perceived (subjective)
time as a power function of the objective clock time, which is often referred to as
“Stevens’ law” (Roeckelein 2000; Grondin 2001). Growth of the psychological
magnitude of a given duration may be faster than, slower than, or equal to growth
of the physical magnitude, subject to the exponent value being greater than,
lower than, or equal to unity respectively (Grondin 2001). Eisler (1976), for in-
stance, concluded an exponent value of 0.9 as the best overall approximate for the
psychological law applied to time perception.

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Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2003

Contextual-Change Model
Several models of psychological time have been advanced in the literature with an
attempt to better explain and model psychological time. These models fall into
two conventions of research: sensory-process convention and cognitive conven-
tion (Block and Zakay 1996). The cognitive approach has prevailed research in
psychological time, namely because it offers a more useful way to understand
duration experience based on such basic concepts as attention, information pro-
cessing, and memory (Block and Zakay 1996; Grondin 2001).
Block’s (1985) contextualistic model, among cognitive models, proposes that
duration experience results from an interaction among:
1. contents of time periods (e.g., empty or filled time);
2. activities during time periods, including temporal and nontemporal at-
tentions;
3. subjects’ characteristics (e.g. personality); and
4. temporal behavior (e.g., method of measurement).
Block’s model seems to corroborate Fraisse’s conception of time perception as
related to contextual changes on the one hand, and has elaborated the effect of
the contextual changes in terms of attentional processes on the other. Subse-
quently, Block and Zakay (1996) advanced the contextual-change model that
highlighted the importance of temporal attention in determining prospective
duration judgments. According to Block and Zakay’s model, contextual changes
are encoded as time-tags in one’s temporal information processing, and hence
directly influence duration judgment. However, given the scarcity of one’s cogni-
tive resource, nontemporal events taken place in the meantime may compete
with temporal cues for attention and processing, and affect duration judgment.
The literature on psychological time has also distinguished between prospective
and retrospective duration judgments or estimations (Block and Zakay 1996;
2001). The prospective paradigm refers to the situation in which participants are
aware of being engaged in a duration estimation task. Participants may encode
temporal information as part of the experience of the time period, and so their
judgment is referred to as an “experienced duration.” On the other hand, in the
retrospective paradigm, participants have no prior knowledge of the duration
judgment task. When asked afterward about the duration, participants may re-
trieve whatever information available in memory. Their judgment is referred to as

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a “remembered duration.” As most urban commutes (e.g., going to work) are

made regularly, and draw one’s attention and estimation of the time spent some-
how, the prospective paradigm should be appropriate for the task of judging an
experienced duration of commute.
Temporal and Situational Environments
Corroborating Fraisse’ (1984) conception of time as the succession of events over
a period, researchers such as Boltz and her colleagues (e.g., Jones and Boltz 1989)
have advocated that the structure of events constitutes the temporal environ-
ment of duration judgment tasks. The temporal pattern of events (usually in the
form of nontemporal information) over a period of time affects the way individu-
als attend to the events, and thus their determination of duration estimates. Highly
coherent events present structural predictability over an arbitrary time span, and
hence conducive to future-oriented attending, whereas lowly coherent events
contain little predictability, and hence conducive to analytic attending. Individuals
adopting future-oriented attending will seek higher order time patterns and gen-
erate expectancies about the start and end of a series of events, whereas those
adopting analytic attending will turn to adjacent events in organizing ill-struc-
tured information. Therefore, in duration judgment tasks, the former group will
be biased by the disconfirmation of expected (starting or ending) times, and the
latter group by their attention to the amount of local details. Urban commutes of
a daily or regular practice should be more conformed to events of high coherence,
and so individual travelers are likely to adopt future-oriented attending in their
perception of the commute time consumed.
On the other hand, the consumption and perception of time is also situation
bound (Hornik 1982; 1984; 1992). Hornik’s (1992) research evidence focuses on
the effect of affective moods as a situational variable on temporal judgment. It is
hypothesized that mood biases temporal judgment by influencing the informa-
tion to be recalled from memory. Individuals in a good (bad) mood, for instance,
are prone to retrieve positive (negative) information, which in turn biases their
judgment in a direction congruent with the mood. Alternatively, their judgment
may be conceived as a direct consequence of the affective responses, positive or
negative, to the stimuli under investigation. Urban commuters moving through
hassles of various kinds are liable to fluctuating affective states that influence their
temporal judgment of the commute.

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Time Perception in an Urban Commute Context

It is hypothesized in this article that the perceived travel time of urban commuters
(presumably with public transportation) varies with commute characteristics,
journey episodes (i.e., ride, wait, access and transfer, service environments), and
their expectancies. These relationships are discussed below, making reference to
the insights from the time perception literature. The discussion is summarized in
the form of research propositions as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Summary of Propositions for Perceived Travel Time

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Commute Characteristics
Commute characteristics include commute duration and commute stage.
Commute Duration
Dating back to the 19th century, Vierordt, among the pioneers of time psy-
chophysics, conducted experiments on time judgment. His observations are
referred to as Vierordt’s law (Roeckelein 2000). One conclusion is that “for all
categories of time from seconds to years, the same law holds good (i.e., rela-
tively short intervals are lengthened by judgment, and relatively long intervals
are shortened” [p. 73]). In regard to a commute experience, a traveler will find
a short commute duration longer, whereas a long commute duration shorter,
compared to the objective clock-time measurement. This implies that com-
mute duration per se biases the commuter’s perceived duration.
Commute Stage
Urban commuters, particularly those using public transportation, are used
to journey interrupts of various kinds (e.g., making transfers in the middle of
a trip). These interrupts may be conceived as dividing a single journey into
multiple commute stages. Fraisee’s principles (Roeckelein 2000) provide in-
sights into the understanding of the effect of staged journeys on perceived
travel time. The principles state:
1. A divided interval of time appears to be longer than an empty (standard)
interval of the same duration.
2. An interval of time with more divisions appears longer than one with
fewer.
3. Of two divided intervals, the one that is evenly divided appears longer than
that which is irregularly divided. (p. 124–125).
The first principle supports the prediction that travelers perceive a given com-
mute experience as being longer, when the journey has more commute stages.
In other words, from the commuter’s perception, interrupts over a journey
are time consuming. Fraisee’s second principle further suggests that the more
commute stages (e.g., transfers) a journey requires, the longer the travel time
will be perceived. The third principle, on the other hand, reveals how the
distribution of interrupts affects one’s experienced duration of a journey. It
suggests that, given the same number of interrupts as required by a journey,
travelers subject to more evenly distributed stages perceive the travel time as

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being longer. To illustrate, all else being equal, travelers perceive a given two-
staged journey comprising two equal-duration segments as being longer,
than a short (long) duration segment followed by a long (short) duration
segment.
Journey Episodes
Access, wait, ride, and transfer characterize the episodes of urban commute expe-
rience, particularly with public transportation. Perceived duration, however, is
likely to vary across the episodes in the light of the relative attention to temporal
and nontemporal information (Block and Zakay 1996) and the likely affective
state elicited (Hornik 1992) in particular episodes. A description of the general
experience in each commute episode follows.
Ride
Given a reasonably stable and comfortable environment, urban commuters
in ride episode are likely to be engaged voluntarily or involuntarily in activities
such as scheduling daily jobs, reading, day dreaming or napping, and chatting
with friends (in person or on phone). These activities demand either a consid-
erable amount of cognitive resource or high involvement by commuters,
thus substantially undermining the chance of temporal information process-
ing. The taking place of these activities in concurrence with one’s commute
characterizes the polychronic time use (i.e., “two or more activities are per-
formed within the same time block, apparently at the same time”) (Kaufman,
Lane, and Lindquist 1991, p. 393). That is, riding in a setting of reasonable
comfort is conducive to polychronic time use which shortens the perceived
duration of travel. Urban commuters in ride episode, compared to other
journey episodes, are likely to experience the fastest pace of time passage and
perceive a given duration as being the soonest.
Wait
Travelers on wait (e.g., for bus service) are subject to unoccupied time, and
thus very attentive to the passage of time (Block and Zakay 1996). Temporal
cues embedded in the wait context (e.g., repeated passing of unintended bus
services or frequent time-checking behaviors by travelers in the same queue),
will easily elicit the traveler’s temporal attention and temporal information
processing. Moreover, the waiting experience will expose travelers to an unful-
filled goal. A discomfort or dissatisfying mood may lead to overestimation of
the traveler’s temporal judgment. In combination of these effects, urban com-
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muters in wait episode are plausibly perceiving a given duration as being the
longest among the journey episodes.
Access and Transfer
Travelers in access or transfer for public transportation will be required to
accomplish nontemporal tasks, such as walking, looking for guides, and mak-
ing their way out of a moving crowd. Subject to the scarcity of cognitive
resources, travelers may be inattentive about temporal information, thus not
noticing time passage. However, unlike riding on board, access or transfer
requires efforts that cannot free travelers for other activities of their choice.
Furthermore, travelers may find dealing with access or transfer a stressful task,
particularly with an unfriendly arrangement or setting. The negative affect
thus aroused may bias the perceived duration upward. As a consequence,
urban commuters are likely to perceive a given duration in access or transfer
episode as being longer than in ride episode, though shorter than in wait
episode.
Travel Environment
Given the fact that both temporal attention and affect are context dependent,
perceived travel time is subject to an array of environmental factors. The effect of
comfort and entertainment provided along the journey episodes are examined
below.
Comfort
Comfort has been widely reported in the literature as one of the key dimen-
sions of customer satisfaction for public transportation (see Li 2001 for a
review). It is a composite measure of attributes related to service environ-
ment, including but not limited to seat availability, smoothness of rides, spa-
ciousness (or loading), air-conditioning (or ventilation), lighting, cleanliness,
spatial layout, and furniture and facilities design. A comfortable and pleasant
commute environment is, on the one hand, conducive to polychronic time
use, and on the other hand, of benefit to mitigate commuting stress and the
negative emotions elicited. These effects in combination lead to underestima-
tion of one’s temporal judgment.
Entertainment
Entertainment is provided in commute environments, as in many service set-
tings, as a time filler to direct customer attention to the nontemporal stimuli

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presented so as to undermine temporal information processing. Moreover,

amusing entertainment is able to elicit positive moods during one’s com-
mute. These effects altogether appear to be conducive to shorten perceived
travel time of urban commuters. However, the use of time fillers (e.g., visual
and audio entertainment, and music broadcasting as commonly used in public
transportation) can lead to mixed results. Entertainment containing overly
repetitive or perpetually familiar content has been shown to lengthen one’s
perceived duration (Kowal 1987), when presenting as temporal cues, or in-
ducing boredom, or both. Also, customer affective responses to musical pieces
vary with individual tastes and preferences (North and Hargreaves 1999).
Expectancy
Urban commute, regardless of the transportation mode used, is likely to be ha-
bituated through repeated practice as a routine activity. Conceiving the daily rou-
tine as a series of highly coherent events, urban commuters may have adopted
future-oriented attending, and generated certain temporal expectations or pre-
dictions (Jones and Boltz 1989) for the duration normally required for each jour-
ney episode and the journey as a whole for instance. Research by Boltz (Jones and
Boltz 1989; Boltz 1993) has indicated that departures from one’s temporal expec-
tation led to biased temporal perception. Therefore, urban commuters perceive a
given duration of travel as being longer (shorter) if the duration is longer (shorter)
than expected, that is when the expectation is negatively (positively) disconfirmed.
In a relatively unstable commute environment (e.g., frequent road congestion for
car commuters or public transportation with frequent delays), travelers may have
difficulty apprehending temporal expectancy, making the commute an uncertain
task. Given the correlation between task uncertainty and overestimated duration
(Boltz 1998), an urban commute taking place in a rather unpredictable setting is
expected to result in longer perceived journey time.

Evaluation of the Urban Commute Experience

Traditional decision theory presumes people make choices based on “decision
value” (i.e., the predicted outcome for future experiences with perfect accuracy
and option evaluation) (Kahneman and Tversky 1984). Emerging behavioral eco-
nomics, in contrast, recognizes the important role of “experience value” in the
decision-making process. It assumes decision-makers to be hedonic and con-
cerned about “the degree of pleasure or pain, satisfaction or anguish in the actual
experience of an outcome” (p. 170), instead of being utilitarian and concerned

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 Evaluating Urban Commute Experience

about the anticipated outcome. In this article, evaluation refers to the “experience
value” that commuters rate toward a given urban commute experience. The fol-
lowing sections examine evaluation of the urban commute experience by com-
mute characteristics, journey episodes, and expectancy. The extant body of litera-
ture on behavioral economics, particularly the Prospect theory (Kahneman and
Tversky 1979), is taken as the primary source of reference, with support from the
findings of transportation research where appropriate. Tentative conclusions are
summarized as propositions in Table 2.

Table 2. Summary of Propositions for Evaluation of the Urban

Commute Experience

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Commute Characteristics
Commute Duration
The Prospect theory suggests that value is assessed with respect to gains or
losses, and the value function generally exhibits a concave shape in the gain
domain and a convex shape in the loss domain (Kahneman and Tversky
1979). To the extent that commuting time is considered a loss, the value
function of commute duration is expected to exhibit convexity. Other
things being equal, the experience value for a given urban commute is
expectedly subject to diminishing sensitivity of the total travel duration: the
longer (shorter) the commuting time, the lower (higher) its marginal value.
Findings from the transportation research literature also lend support to
the convexity of the value function of commute duration (e.g., Kjoerstad
and Renolen’s [1996] valuation of travel time in five Norwegian towns, and
Small and colleagues’ [Small, Noland, Chu, and Lewis 1999] willingness to
pay study for reduced congestion delay for various trip lengths in the
United States).
Commute Stages
Travelers making a multistaged journey may be conceived as subject to
combined prospects, in which losses are segregated by commute stages
(Kahneman and Tversky 1979). Given a convex loss function, the segregated
losses in accumulation shall loom larger for a multistaged journey, com-
pared to an equivalent journey of no or fewer commute stages. Further-
more, for a constant number of commute stages over a journey, the
segregated losses in accumulation will be greater if those stages are more
uniformly distributed temporally. Though these predictions are by and
large consistent with the decision behavior based on monetary evaluation,
urban commuters as consumers of time are expected to demonstrate an
even stronger propensity to integrate losses (Leclerc, Schmitt, and Dube
1995), say by reducing the number of commute stages. Kjoerstad and
Renolen (1996) reported a strong preference for direct trips without
transfer, even if the journey time was longer. In two Norwegian cities, direct
connection without transfer was rated 1.8 to 5.0 times as valuable for a
journey requiring a transfer with a 5-minute waiting time, or 2.5 to 9.2
times as valuable for the one with a transfer with 10 minutes waiting time.

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Journey Episodes
Peak Episode
Kahneman’s research (1999) notes that “retrospective evaluations of
affective episodes are strongly influenced by the affect experienced at
singular moment” (p. 2). As far as urban commute experience is concerned,
some singular moments along the journey episodes may be more affect-
laden than the others (e.g. ride without seats, waiting on-street
unsheltered). These instances are likely to arouse strong negative affect, and
return the most regretful value (i.e., the greatest loss) to the commuters,
characterizing “the most extreme affect experienced” (p. 6) moment(s) or
the “peak” snapshot(s) of a journey. For instance, in six Norwegian towns,
travel time standing was found to be very “expensive”—rated 2.0 to 3.0
times as undesirable for travel time seated (Kjoerstad and Renolen 1996).
Walking access, waiting, and transfer were rated 2.0 to 2.5, 1.5 to 3.4, and
1.3 to 2.9 times, respectively, as undesirable for travel time seated. Recent
research studies for the United States revealed the value of out-of-vehicle
times to be 2 to 3 times of that of in-vehicle times (U.S. Department of
Transportation 1997; Bhat 1998), remaining in order with study findings
reviewed in Cherlow (1981). Riding with discomfort and out-of-vehicle
episodes, such as wait or access, are likely to be the peak experiences during
an urban commute.
End Episode
On the other hand, evaluation as to whether the journey’s goal can be
attained will usually be processed near the end of a trip. This near-end
evaluation may again lead to an extreme affect as at the peak episode,
characterizing the “end” snapshot of a journey (Kahneman 1999). For
example, failing to get to work on time is very likely to elicit a commuter’s
intense negative mood. Such strong emotion can overwhelm one’s evalua-
tion of the commute, and the entire journey may be viewed as being overly
negative, even though all previous episodes are satisfying. The end-episode
effect may offer partial support to the notion of higher willingness to pay
for more reliable arrival time to work than nonwork trips in the United
States (Small et al. 1999).
Duration Neglect
The “peak” and “end” snapshots, as Kahneman (1999) suggested, determine
the overall evaluation of a given experience, and undermine the significance
of the experience duration. This undermining is referred to as “duration

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neglect” in the behavioral decision literature. Duration neglect suggests

that, given the intense emotionality of certain singular moments along a
journey, the duration is likely to be negligibly valued, if not totally neglected,
in one’s evaluation. Ariely and Carmon (forthcoming) recently set out two
conditions for duration neglect to be in place:
1. when the duration as an attribute is not attended to; and
2. when the duration of the experience is inherent to the experience.
Though duration is inherent to urban commute experience, commuters will some-
how care about the duration (e.g., for scheduling or comparing services). It is
therefore unlikely that duration neglect will take place in full range in the urban
commute context.
Expectancy
Commuter Reference
As mentioned above, through repeated practice, urban commuters have
generated certain temporal expectancies. These expectancies are encoded in
a commuter’s mental account as costs for routine (temporal) transactions,
rather than occasional losses (Thaler 1985). They serve as a reference context
for one’s assessment of temporal gains (time saved) or losses (time wasted).
Given the S-shape of the value function about a given reference point
(Kahneman and Tversky 1979), temporal losses shall loom larger than
temporal gains with reference to a commuter’s expectation.
Commute Reliability
Prospect theory (Kahneman and Tversky 1979) predicts that decision-
makers rate the importance of sure gains as more valuable than probable
(i.e., uncertain) gains, contrasting traditional decision theory that assumes
evaluation based on expected value criteria. Leclerc, Schmitt, and Dube
(1995) further contend with empirical evidence that individuals are more
highly risk averse toward temporal resources, compared to monetary
resources. One reason given is the low transferability of temporal resources.
The certainty effect in regard to temporal resources will be considered more
appealing than monetary resources. As for the urban commute, the
certainty effect is likely to imply a disproportionately high value attached to
a stable commute, be it a reliable service (in terms of punctuality and
adherence to schedule for instance) or a flow traffic. The predictability
associated with a stable commute allows urban commuters to plan how to
use their temporal resources more effectively. Kjoerstad and Renolen’s

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 Evaluating Urban Commute Experience

(1996) report revealed that passengers in Oslo, Norway, had strong prefer-
ences for highly reliable services, and considered even short delays a prob-
lem.
Time Perception Model of Evaluating the Urban Commute
Experience
Correspondence Between Perception and Evaluation
The propositions set out for time perception in the urban commute context and
temporal evaluation of the urban commute experience are outlined and com-
pared in Table 3. The comparison exhibits high correspondence between the two
proposition sets. The correspondence reminisces the psychological origin of the
emerging behavioral economics, particularly the Prospect theory. The S-shaped
value function, for instance, seems to reverberate Stevens’ power law as proposed
in the psychophysics literature (Roeckelein 2000).

Table 3. Comparison of Propositions Sets for Perceived Travel Time and

Evaluation of the Urban Commute Experience

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Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2003

Furthermore, the correspondence suggests a more coherent relationship with

one’s evaluation for the perceived rather than the physical stimuli, despite the
departure of the perceived reality from the physical reality which Tversky referred
to as “perceptual illusion” (McFadden 1998). In other words, subjective time,
however illusive, may be rather informative of one’s evaluation of a commute
experience, as compared to the objective clock time. In fact, research studies on
waiting times have offered consistent evidence for the connection of increased
perceived (wait) time with more negative customer evaluation (e.g., Katz, Larson,
and Larson 1991; Pruyn and Smidts 1998; Antonides, Verhoef, and van Aalst 2002).
The Model
This section discusses the development potential of a research approach to com-
mute behaviors that places perceived travel time as central to one’s evaluation of a
commute experience. A tentative model is proposed, linking the hypothesized
factors to one’s perception of travel time, and hence commute experience evalua-
tion, as represented by the black solid lines in Figure 1. More specifically, perceived
travel time is expected to vary with four factor categories:
1. commute characteristics (objective duration and number of commute
stages);
2. journey episodes (e.g., commuters are riding or transferring);
3. service or commute environment (comfort and the provision of enter-
tainment or the quality of entertainment provided); and
4. expectancy (commuter expectancy and service reliability).
Furthermore, the perceived travel time determined is expected to be predictive of
one’s evaluation of the commute experience.
Despite the postulated importance of perceived travel time to commute experi-
ence evaluation, the proposed model accommodates potential direct impacts of
the identified factor categories on a commuter’s evaluation. These direct contri-
butions may be conceived as support for the notion of duration neglect as dis-
cussed above. The model, however, leaves open for empirical evaluation the ques-
tion as to the extent of explained variances on the commute experience evaluation
to be accounted for by the four factor categories with and without the mediation
of perceived travel time.

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 Evaluating Urban Commute Experience

Figure 1: Time Perception Model of Evaluating the Urban

Commute Experience

Moderators for Perception–Evaluation Link

There may be other constructs at play (e.g., goal attainment, economic values,
time urgency) that influence commuters’ perceptions, or moderate the percep-
tion–evaluation link, as represented by the dotted lines in Figure 1.
Goal Attainment
As mentioned above, goal attainment is usually assessed near the end of the
journey, and the assessment will possibly bring about intense emotions that
moderate the perception–evaluation link. On the other hand, as the goal of
most urban commutes is associated with production or economic activities
(e.g., going to work), goal attainment is related to economic gains or losses,
which lead to corresponding changes in experience value.

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Economic Values
The economic costs or values associated with a commute also influence a
commuter’s evaluation. For one, fare represents the monetary payoff for the
chosen public transportation modes. Wage reflects the economic cost of the
time consumed, as most economists assumed (e.g., Becker 1965). Part of the
economic values may also be related to goal attainment (e.g. monetary pen-
alty for late-comers). Antonides et al.’s work (2002) presents the moderating
effect of monetary cost of time on the perception–evaluation link for a tele-
phone wait setting.
Time Urgency
While perception and evaluation involves subjective judgment of individual
commuters, individual differences should have their part to play. In particular,
time urgency as a personality trait or a personality state (Koslowsky, Kluger,
and Reich 1995) is expected to affect time perception and experience evalua-
tion of individual commuters. As a personality trait, time urgency refers to an
individual’s disposition about time in general (e.g., Type A behavior), whereas
as a personality state, it reflects specific time demands of the external environ-
ments (e.g., getting to work on time).

Implications
Explaining Modal Choice
The postulated time perception model is of potential contribution to a better
understanding of travel behavior, such as the notion of auto dominance and the
preference for bus over rail as exemplified below.
Auto Dominance
The private car has remained the prevailing mode of transportation for the
urban commute. In 1995, the automobile accounted for 43 percent of pas-
senger kilometers worldwide (Pucher 1999). The time perception model of
commute evaluation may well explain the notion of auto dominance in re-
gard to a commuter’s perception of travel time. An auto commute is attrac-
tive in most courses of perceived travel time, compared to a public transpor-
tation commute. It is most likely a door-to-door service, thus minimizing the
number of commute stages. It spends time predominantly on the ride epi-
sode, usually with seats secured and even entertainment (e.g., music) of the
commuter’s choice. It demands the commuter’s (i.e., driver’s) continuous

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attention to road conditions and motor operation, rather than temporal

cues or information, and hence exploits the cognitive resource for nontemporal
information processing. Also, it avoids the temporal and monetary losses due
to unreliable public transportation services. All these may result in a given
journey perceived as shorter for an auto commute, and hence the commute
experience to be more positively evaluated than for a commute with public
transportation. Though people intending to travel by car to save time are not
necessarily objectively justified, their savings in the experienced time and posi-
tive evaluation associated may be arguably real (Hjorthol 2001).
Bus Versus Rail
Of the public transportation modes, bus and coaches are the most preferred.
In 1995, bus and coaches recorded a 20 percent modal split of the world’s
passenger transport in terms of passenger kilometers, compared to only a 6
percent split for rail-based modes (Pucher 1999). The notion of a larger modal
split for bus than rail remains valid for well-developed countries such as the
United States, where modal shares (in passenger-miles) of bus and rail were
1.1 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, in 1997. Though there are many
reasons (e.g., the investment required) to the relative prevalence of bus over
rails, the time perception model potentially offers a good account. For in-
stance, bus is usually more accessible than rail and is likely to entail fewer
commute stages or transfers for urban commuters. On the other hand, bus is
more likely to offer commuters with seats than is rail, and hence more condu-
cive to polychronic time use (Kaufman et al. 1991). Therefore, though the
objective travel time for a given journey may be longer for bus than rail, the
perceived travel time can be shorter for a commuter with bus than rail, lead-
ing to a more desirable evaluation of the bus mode. The reliability of bus
services, however, is more susceptible to road conditions, and in some cases
renders bus to be less preferred than rail in view of possible temporal and
monetary losses as a result of service delays.
Guiding Service Planning and Design
The proposed time perception model of evaluating commute experience is in-
tended not only to provide a better understanding of urban commute behaviors,
but also to be of practical value to the planning and design of a public transporta-
tion system. Of the potential contributions, it highlights perceptual vis-à-vis physi-
cal aspects in service planning and design for public transportation. The conven-

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Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2003

tional approach to service planning design has been obsessed with such efficiency
criteria as maximum flows and shortest paths (travel durations). The proposed
approach, however, calls for the creation of commute patterns conducive to
polychronic time use, and the provision of reliable services and a pleasant travel
environment. It also lends support to the potential of developing walking as a
desirable transportation mode.
Transfers
Most public transportation networks are designed with an overwhelming
concern on efficiency, resulting in transfer points of various kinds for intramodal
or intermodal connections. It is inevitable that, in their journey with public
transportation, urban commuters go through more than one commute stage,
and experience the transfer episode(s). The tolerance of urban commuters in
regard to the number of transfers required, and their temporal distribution,
over a journey, however, has yet to be determined. Obviously, travel disrupted
by frequent transfers hampers commuters’ polychronic time use. Travel re-
quiring a transfer midway keeps commuters attentive for half of the journey
and the related temporal information. It appears, for instance, that the num-
ber of transfers required for a journey to work should be limited to two,
though more transfers may be acceptable for commutes of other purposes
(e.g., leisure). On the other hand, a congenial design of transfer points re-
duces the extent of perceived contextual changes, and hence the perceived
passage of time during the transfer episode. Transfer points so designed, among
others, may require just a brief access from one line (mode) to another, and
have an integrated in and out for all modes available.
Reliable Services
The time perception model suggests that unreliable or disconformed services
are evaluated as extremely undesirable by urban commuters, because the travel
time is perceived as unreasonably long. The negative evaluation is likely to be
coupled with failure in goal attainment, for instance, due to delayed arrivals.
This is in contrast with the auto commute experience in which, under normal
road conditions, the driver has control over the departure time, route choice,
speed used, and even the arrival time, as conformed with the commuter’s
expectation. The comparative disadvantage on commute reliability or pre-
dictability of public transportation may be one reason that continues to
motivate urban commuters to use autos. Service reliability is, therefore, ex-

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 Evaluating Urban Commute Experience

tremely important in attracting urban commuters to public transportation,

though not equally important in drawing auto commuters. However, trans-
port operators obsessed with efficiency are tempted to publicize the best
achievable service level or the shortest travel time, ignoring the adverse impact
of variability on commuters’ perceived duration and service evaluations.
Whereas, planners having regard to perceptual elements should seek to man-
age commuters’ expectations, say by presenting realistic or rather conserva-
tive estimates of service information on the one hand, and give variability a
disproportionate weight in service planning and design on the other.
Travel Environment
A comfortable and pleasant travel environment is conducive to polychronic
time use, and reduces commute stress and hence a negative mood. Such an
environment helps to shorten perceived travel time, and bring about positive
evaluation of the commute experience. In regard to the determination of
service levels for public transportation, for instance, planners overwhelmed
with doing more for less are tempted to pack as many passengers in a given
compartment as the safety requirement would allow at the expense of
commuter’s experiences. However, it is recommended to establish target load
levels for different periods of operation that balance efficiency and perceptual
concerns. On the other hand, congeniality, suggested as the guiding principle
for the design of transfer points, should also be adhered to wherever possible
in the design of other commute environments (e.g., wait and access areas). It
encompasses the logistic aspects as well as perceptual factors such as tempera-
ture and color tones. It should be noted that while entertainment in public
transportation settings is intended to distract commuters’ attention from
temporal information, reaction toward the entertainment used, be it visual
or audio, depends very much on individual taste. Thus, the effect is rather
unpredictable. A boring film, for example, may be a driver to attend to time
passage, or to go napping while traveling. It is, therefore, difficult to generalize
the use of entertainment as a tool for managing perception.
Walking as a Mode
Walking as a nonmotorized transport mode accounted for 17 percent pas-
senger kilometers made among the world’s passenger transport in 1995
(Pucher 1999). Walking has met with increasing recognition by policy-makers
as an important transportation mode in both the United States and Euro-

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Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2003

pean countries. While the time perception model suggests that a short com-
mute is likely to be perceived as longer, walking presents potential to reduce
perceived travel time particularly well for relatively short-distance travels, say
within 800M. Unlike commutes with public transportation, walking demands
the traveler’s continuous attention to the environment and motor opera-
tion. This may help divert a traveler’s attention from temporal information to
nontemporal goals (e.g., a certain building ahead), thus reducing the per-
ceived duration of travel. On the other hand, walking, like an auto commute,
allows travelers (commuters) to control departure time, route choice, and
arrival time, possibly leading to conformed expectation in travel time. It is
equivalent to, and as valuable as, a highly reliable transportation mode, par-
ticularly for short-distance travels. However, the walking environment pro-
vided, including facilities (e.g., air-conditioning), traffic priority, pedestrian
safety measures, etc., is essential to promoting walking as a desirable alterna-
tive mode. Policy-makers in this pursuit should endeavor to create a pleasant
and safe walking environment.

Summary and Concluding Remarks

This article has attempted to contribute an alternative approach to the research of
transportation behavior which has been drawing predominately on conventional
decision theory and particularly random utility models. It examined the subjective
perception of travel time spent for the urban commute and evaluation of the
commute experience. In view of the long history of time perception in psychology
research, the time perception literature was reviewed, particularly psychophysics
and cognitive models of time perception, as pertinent to the context of the urban
commute. Through the literature review, perceived travel time of urban commut-
ers was hypothesized to be contingent with (1) commute characteristics (dura-
tion and the number and distribution of commute stages); (2) journey episodes
(ride, wait, and access and transfer); (3) travel environments (condition of com-
fort and entertainment provided); and (4) expectancy (commuter expectation
and commute reliability).
The article has also made reference to the emerging behavioral decision theory,
particularly Kahneman and Tversky’s Prospect theory, in the examination of the
evaluation of the urban commute experience. It appeared that (1) asymmetric
and segregation effects was relating evaluation to commute characteristics; (2)
peak-end effect and duration neglect (less likely though) were at play to affect
evaluation through journey episodes; and (3) reference and certainty effects ac-

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counted for the impact of commuter expectation and commute reliability on

evaluation. Furthermore, the hypothesized relationships exhibited high corre-
spondence with those identified for perceived travel duration. A time perception
model of evaluating urban commute experience was proposed, accommodating
all the posited relationships, and placing perceived travel time as central to the
evaluation of a given urban commute experience. Some possible moderators for
the link between perceived travel time and evaluation were also postulated and
discussed, namely goal attainment, economic values associated, and time urgency.
The proposed model not only suggested an innovative approach for transporta-
tion research, but also to be of descriptive and prescriptive value for practitioners.
It was applied to explain mode choice behaviors, namely auto dominance and the
preference of bus over rail, from the perspective of perceived duration. More
importantly, it drew the attention of transport planners and policy-makers to the
perceptual vis-à-vis physical aspects of transportation system. Transfers, service
reliability, travel environment, and walking as a transport mode were highlighted
and discussed.
Some limitations of this article are acknowledged. The literature reviewed was by
no means exhaustive of the total body of the research in psychology and behav-
ioral economics. Also, research studies adopting the behavioral economics ap-
proach to the investigation of transport behavior are parsimonious. This article
may be among the few of its kind. In addition, the hypothesized relationships of
the model are tentative, and yet to be confirmed by empirical evaluation. There
should be much room for modification and development based on the result of
empirical examination. Apparently, it is remote to apply behavioral decision theory
to inquire transport choice behavior, to the same extent as conventional decision
theory is applied. Despite these limitations, this article hopefully presents a pio-
neering attempt.

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Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2003

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About the Author

YUEN-WAH LI (yuenwahli@sinaman.com) is a DBA candidate at Argosy University/
Sarasota. Mr. Li received an MA in economics from the University of Oklahoma
(Norman) and a BA in quantitative analysis for business at City University of Hong
Kong.
Since 1993, Mr. Li has served as assistant manager for planning and development at
Hong Kong’s Kowloon Motor Bus Co. Ltd., one of the world’s largest public bus
companies owned by private enterprises.

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