How To Improve Your Commute

"Resources are sometimes available to help in [the quest to shorten commutes and beat traffic]. Houston Transtar provides up to the minute traffic information for all major Houston highways.5 Average traveling speed, construction and accident information are all available at the click of the mouse, but how to avoid the perpetual web of red during the morning and evening rush hours is nowhere to be found. Obvious answers such as public transportation and carpooling are legitimate, but trends show that Americans are meeting the increase in traffic by using such transportation methods less, not more.6 Also, if the online traffic-reporting graphic warns of potential issues, there is no indication of how long they might persist, leaving the traffic conscientious commuter right where he started: guessing.

Tired of the typically inefficient and contradictory workplace chatter on the subject and feeling the pull of a slight worksheet obsession, I set out to statistically analyze my commute in order to determine how I might minimize my time behind the wheel. If there was a way to figure out how to give myself an advantage over the almost 900,000 other Houstonian workers out there (who average a 26.1 minute commute),7 math and a smidgeon of obsessive compulsive disorder had to be essential ingredients. At the very least, I would be able to ascertain just how much of my commute time was up to me -- and how much depended on a 'higher power' (e.g., weather, school districts, wrecks, etc.)."