I was just wondering about this topic this morning.
My thought was peoples happiness seemed to have been higher during the lock downs as driving habits changed drastically, such as a great number of individuals not needing to commut to/from work. This decrease traffic and commute times for essential workers, and increased satisfaction of both commuters and now non-commuters.
"Extreme car dependence is affecting Americans’ quality of life, with a new study finding there is a tipping point at which more driving leads to deeper unhappiness. It found that while having a car is better than not for overall life satisfaction, having to drive for more than 50% of the time for out-of-home activities is linked to a decrease in life satisfaction."
The car has artificially increased distances people need to travel, and has also had a impact on inducing urban sprawl. Cars require space to drive and at the same time require large parking spaces at destinations points. If all this infrastructure was instead used for trains, trams, and buses, things would be closer and cities would be denser.
It would also be interesting to know how increased commute times on all forms of transportation affect peoples happiness and satisfaction. For example increased crowding and increased commute times on public transportation such as trains and subways could also be draining and frustrating when performed on a daily basis.