Research suggests that for many people happiness is being able to make the routines of everyday life work, such that positive feelings dominate over negative feelings resulting from daily hassles. In line with this, a survey of work commuters in the three largest urban areas of Sweden show that satisfaction with the work commute contributes to overall happiness. It is also found that feelings during the commutes are predominantly positive or neutral. Possible explanatory factors include desirable physical exercise from walking and biking, as well as that short commutes provide a buffer between the work and private spheres. For longer work commutes, social and entertainment activities either increase positive affects or counteract stress and boredom. Satisfaction with being employed in a recession may also spill over to positive experiences of work commutes.

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Many studies analysing the relationship between attitudes and travel behaviour have found that travel attitudes have an important impact on travel mode choice. More recently, studies focusing on how people experience travel have shown that travel satisfaction is influenced by the chosen travel mode. The desire and intention of using a travel mode – which can be considered as important predictors of mode choice – have, however, received limited attention. Furthermore, existing studies mostly have a narrow scope and lack integration of the above constructs. In this paper, we introduce the travel mode choice cycle (TMCC), a comprehensive model aiming to link attitude, desire, intention, behaviour, and satisfaction by integrating prominent social-psychological attitude theories such as the theory of planned behaviour, the model of goal-directed behaviour, and the theory of cognitive dissonance. We argue that the constructs of the TMCC are strongly interrelated such that they can affect each other in direct and indirect ways. The proposed cycle provides valuable insights for policymakers to stimulate the use of desired travel modes, such as public transport and active travel. We end this paper by providing suggestions for future studies to simultaneously investigate the relationships specified by the TMCC.