Shorter commutes mean — surprise — happier workers.

The average of respondents in an unscientific survey of 26 respondents said the shorter their daily commute to work, the more satisfied they were.

For the most part, a shorter work preparation time — the time from the bed to the door — also correlates with more satisfaction with the commute. The exception is that the people with a work preparation time of more than an hour-and-a-half said they were pretty satisfied with their commute.

People who said they rode the bus or walked or biked enjoyed their commute the most. Taking a train or driving a car was the least satisfactory commute. However, driving — like riding a train — is traditionally designed for commutes of 20 minutes or longer. Walking, biking and riding the bus are usually for shorter trips.

Disclaimer for the visualizations below: the raw numbers of people who take each type of transportation was not included. Because this survey is unscientific, that data is irrelevant because those factors depend on where a person lives, the availability of public transportation and a whole host of other factors for another time and possibly for the Department of Transportation to figure out. What matters is how it correlates with satisfaction.

Type of transportation, commute times and satisfaction

Satisfaction of commute with preparation time for work