Member Article

Busy Business Commuters Would Like More Reasons to Smile

Today is World Smile Day - a day devoted to smiling, and laughter, and happiness. But when you step onto the train platforms of London and see the busy commuters making their way to work, your chances of catching a smile are (let’s be honest) slim to none.

On a mission to create more smiles on World Smile Day, the international children’s charity, Smile Train, recently carried out a survey - to allow them to learn more about the joys (and lows) that come with commuting.

Some interesting findings from their survey revealed that:

• Close to 9 in 10 business commuters would like more reasons to smile whilst travelling – with ‘less crowding on public transport’ and ‘more engagement with other commuters’ listed as the top two things which would improve their experience.

• When asked what they value most about commuting, close to two thirds said that they enjoy the ‘quiet time’ it offers and over a third stated that they like to use this time to ‘catch up on news and current affairs’.

• Despite the fact that we are a nation of smart phone lovers, the survey also found that far from checking social media, or browsing the internet, most buisness commuters like nothing more than getting stuck into a good novel whilst on their commute.

• Thankfully, the vast majority of commuters who responded to the survey do not view their travel time as an opportunity to work more – with only a very small percentage of those polled stating that they regularly use their commute to check and reply to work emails.

In light of these survey findings, the charity decided to take to the streets of London this morning to hand out jokes and happy messages - in an attempt to make commuters all over London to smile.

Were you one of these commuters? And were they successful?

If they’ve cracked the key to making commuting more bearable, I myself certainly want to know!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sandra Griffiths .