Subjectively experienced well-being has recently attracted increased attention in transport and mobility studies. However, these studies are still in their infancy and many of the multifarious links between travel behaviour and well-being are still under-examined; most studies only focus on one aspect of this link (i.e. travel satisfaction). In this paper, we give an overview of studies concerning travel and well-being, focusing on results, methods and gaps in present research. We suggest that travel behaviour affects well-being through experiences during (destination-oriented) travel, activity participation enabled by travel, activities during (destination-oriented) travel, trips where travel is the activity and through potential travel (or motility). The majority of empirical studies to date have been based on hedonic views of well-being, where pleasure and satisfaction are seen as the ultimate goal in life. They have paid little attention to eudaimonic views of well-being, which emphasise the realisation of one's true potential, although this form of well-being can also be influenced by travel behaviour. We also argue that longer-term decisions, such as residential location choices, can affect well-being through travel. Travel options differ between different kinds of neighbourhoods, which can result in different levels of (feelings of) freedom and consequently different levels of subjective well-being. Since studies at present only show a subset of the travel behaviour–well-being interactions, we conclude the paper with an agenda for future research.

Many studies model the effects of the built environment on travel behaviour. Usually, results are controlled for socio‐economic differences and sometimes socio‐psychological differences among respondents. However, these studies do not mention why after all a relationship should exist between travel behaviour and spatial, socio‐economic and personality characteristics. Answering this query involves combining and linking theories stemming from transport geography (e.g. time geography, activity‐based approach) and social psychology (e.g. Theory of Planned Behaviour, Theory of Repeated Behaviour). Using key‐variables from these theories, this paper aims to develop a conceptual model for travel behaviour. Comparable to customary theories in transport geography, this conceptual model considers travel behaviour as derived from locational behaviour and activity behaviour. But the conceptual model adds concepts such as ‘lifestyle’, ‘perceptions’, ‘attitudes’ and ‘preferences’ which indirectly influence travel behaviour.