Professor Richard Wener studies commuter stress and the benefits of physical exercise over traveling by train.

When you board a subway car, you may be getting a little more than you bargained for, namely, stress. It’s a common claim that commuting by mass transit, especially during the morning rush hour, can be stressful. Now there’s strong evidence to validate the claim.
Richard Wener, associate professor of psychology, Department of the Humanities and Social Sciences at Polytechnic and Gary Evans, professor of developmental psychology, Department of Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell University studied how traveling by mass transit can affect commuter stress level; whether some people, such as working mothers, are more vulnerable to commuting stress; and whether stress carries over into the workplace. The professors also studied the level of the physical activity of mass transit commuters to that of individuals traveling by car.

Wener and Evans conducted two major studies, funded by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, which examined groups of commuters, similar in most demographic aspects, before and after improvements were made to New Jersey Transit’s Midtown Direct Service and its Montclair Connection Line. In each case, they compared stress between one group of commuters that chose to take the improved service and another group that continued taking the longer route. Wener and Evans compared the data collected from both groups of commuters before and after the improved service and found that the stress levels of the group that continued to use the longer route remained the same while the stress levels of the group that used the improved service were reduced. “When the commute improved, that is, when the trip was more direct—fewer transfers, shorter travel time by virtue of the improvement to the infrastructure—the stress level declined,” Wener said. The reduction in the travel time was the most important factor in determining stress reduction during the commute.

When compared with men, women with children are generally more susceptible to commuter stress and are more likely to carry that stress into the workplace.
“Women commuters experienced more stress in the workplace and that stress was exacerbated by the commute,” Wener said. “If these women have children at home, they have the equivalent of a second job, hence additional stress.” The study also found that women benefited the most from the improved service, resulting in less stress in the workplace.

Wener and Evans used several different criteria to measure commuter stress. The physiological evidence of stress was indicated by salivary cortisol—a by-product of the adrenal gland, produced when the body is stressed—which was obtained by asking participants to chew a sterile cotton ball. Each participant also completed a perceived stress survey, which rated how the rider felt about the commute, and worked on a proofreading test to measure performance motivation. In the second stress study, commuters also completed a work/stress survey, measuring stress in the workplace after their morning commute.

Jonathan Bain

"Spacetime Structuralism", in Dieks, D. (ed.) The Ontology of Spacetime, Vol. 1 (Elsevier Press, 2006):  37-66.

"Condensed Matter Physics, Emergent Spacetime, and Structural Realism", 15th U.K. and European Meeting on the Foundations of Physics, Leeds, United Kingdom, March 2007. 

Jean Gallagher

Stubborn (Oberlin College Press, 2006), winner of the Field Poetry Prize from Oberlin College Press.

This Minute (Fordham Univ. Press, 2005), winner of the Poets Out Loud Prize from Fordham University Press.

Poems appearing in Commonweal, The Notre Dame Review, Barrow Street, Rhino, The Journal, and Margie: The American Journal of Poetry (2004). 

Allan Goldstein

Op-ed ("In Willowbrook's Wake") appearing in Newsday (January 28, 2007).

Two personal experience essays selected as "Story of the Week" on Mr. Beller's Neighborhood website (Feb. 16 and July 19, 2006). 

Myles Jackson

Harmonious Triads: Physicists, Musicians, Instrument Makers in 19th-Century Germany (MIT Press, 2006), recipient of the Paul-Bunge-Prize for the Best Work on Scientific Instruments and Their Makers (2005), the Hans-Sauer-Prize for the Best Historical Study on Invention (2007), and the Graves Award for Outstanding Professor of the Humanities (2005). 

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