Toward a Framework for Comfort in Active Mobility: A Systematic Literature Review
Abstract
Comfort in active mobility remains poorly understood despite its documented influence on mode and route choice, while feasibility, accessibility, and safety have been widely addressed in research. When studied, comfort is frequently conflated with safety or measured through proxy concepts such as walkability, satisfaction, or ease of travel. The aim of this research is to address this gap by understanding what walking and cycling comfort is and how it has been studied through a systematic literature review. Key findings from reviewing 58 scholarly articles show a steady growth in the topic over the last decade. Geographically, the research is led by the US and China. While cycling comfort is largely discussed in the transport research field, walking comfort is more diversely studied in urban planning, health, environmental and computer sciences. Using surveys and questionnaires prevails in data collection methods as well as statistical analyses. Less than 30% of the studies provide a definition of comfort. A wide range of indicators has been developed, spanning from traffic-related factors to the built environment, greenery and aesthetics. The research also reveals the dominance of safety measures as well as lack of a unanimous approach to studying comfort in the field. Based on these insights, we propose a conceptual framework for understanding comfort in active mobility upon three constructs: built environment, natural environment, and human processor, encompassing physical, physiological, and psychological comfort within a socio-cultural context. We argue that active mobility comfort deserves its own line of research independent of safety, and the proposed framework offers a structured basis for advancing this research agenda.
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BibTeX
@article{anon2026toward,
title = {{Toward a Framework for Comfort in Active Mobility: A Systematic Literature Review}},
journal = {Active Travel Studies},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.16997/ats.2123},
url = {https://doi.org/10.16997/ats.2123},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Toward a Framework for Comfort in Active Mobility: A Systematic Literature Review
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/23
JO - Active Travel Studies
DO - 10.16997/ats.2123
UR - https://doi.org/10.16997/ats.2123
AB - Comfort in active mobility remains poorly understood despite its documented influence on mode and route choice, while feasibility, accessibility, and safety have been widely addressed in research. When studied, comfort is frequently conflated with safety or measured through proxy concepts such as walkability, satisfaction, or ease of travel. The aim of this research is to address this gap by understanding what walking and cycling comfort is and how it has been studied through a systematic literature review. Key findings from reviewing 58 scholarly articles show a steady growth in the topic over the last decade. Geographically, the research is led by the US and China. While cycling comfort is largely discussed in the transport research field, walking comfort is more diversely studied in urban planning, health, environmental and computer sciences. Using surveys and questionnaires prevails in data collection methods as well as statistical analyses. Less than 30% of the studies provide a definition of comfort. A wide range of indicators has been developed, spanning from traffic-related factors to the built environment, greenery and aesthetics. The research also reveals the dominance of safety measures as well as lack of a unanimous approach to studying comfort in the field. Based on these insights, we propose a conceptual framework for understanding comfort in active mobility upon three constructs: built environment, natural environment, and human processor, encompassing physical, physiological, and psychological comfort within a socio-cultural context. We argue that active mobility comfort deserves its own line of research independent of safety, and the proposed framework offers a structured basis for advancing this research agenda.
SN - 2732-4184
ER -