Examining the roles of transport captivity and travel dissonance in travel satisfaction

Despite the increasing studies examining the determinants of travel satisfaction, the role of individuals’ transport mobility (i.e., access to different mobility tools) in travel satisfaction has not received much research attention. Previous travel satisfaction studies mostly consider travel as a free choice. However, travel satisfaction may also depend on the availability of travel options, which is supposed to be limited especially for captive travelers. Such travel captivity may affect the perception of travel either directly by shaping the expectations and feelings in travel, or indirectly via the resulted travel mode consonance/dissonance. It may also influence people’s sensitivity to travel features by determining one’s travel experiences, which serve as reference points in travel evaluation. This paper aims to identify the role of mobility in travel satisfaction by investigating both the independent and joint effects of travel captivity and travel mode dissonance on travel satisfaction using data from a household travel survey conducted in 2018 in Shanghai, China. Descriptive analyses show that travel captivity and travel dissonance are positively associated for car commuters, but not transit commuters. We then develop linear regression models and find that travel captivity has a negative effect on transit commuters’ travel satisfaction, but no or positive impact on that of car commuters. Besides, captive transit commuters are more tolerant to travel mode dissonance when rating travel satisfaction, while the opposite holds true for car commuters. The research findings highlight the importance of mobility in travel satisfaction and provide support to the development of multimodal transport systems.