A Journey of 1000 Commutes

I've been commuting now for 20 years.  And when I say commuting, I'm talking 2-3 hours per day almost every day for 20 years.  I recently had my 18 year anniversary at my current employer and decided to quickly calculate how much time I've spent in the car going to and from work over that 18 year period.  Turns out it's about 1.5  years.  Yes, you read that correctly, 1.5 years just driving to work every day.  It's not all bad, the time in the car allows me to unwind, get educated, think, catch up with friends, listen to music, etc.  The commute has also allowed my family to thrive, have a parent home with my once young kids, and generally allowed us to have a great quality of life because we aren't a slave to a mortgage.  But let's not kid ourselves...commuting sucks.  Now over those 20 years of commuting I've learned a few things that I will now share as my 6 truths of commuting.

1) The 2 Worst Commute Days: I have no empirical evidence to prove this, but at this point I'm going to call myself a commute expert and you'll just have to trust me.  Contrary to popular belief, the worst commute days are not those surrounding holidays.  If commuting was torture (which in many ways it is), holiday travel would be dripping water torture.  I'm going to tell you the drives that are the water boarding of commutes.  For the drive in, I've found the first Monday of the Fall Daylight Savings Time adjustment to be simply awful.  My theory is it's the one day of the year people actually got enough sleep.  You generally go to bed an hour earlier than normal and when you wake up at your normal time, you've actually slept an hour later.  In other words, when that alarm goes off in the morning I suspect not nearly as many people are hitting the snooze over and over again.  Therefore, instead of the commute being spread out over several hours, I believe it's condensed into a 1-2 hour window.  For the drive home, you don't get any worse than Halloween Night.  My theory here is this is the one day of the year when virtually everyone is trying to get home at about the same time.  Parents get home to take their kids trick or treating.  Other people are getting home to go to a party.  Still others are getting home just to be in their house to hand out candy.  Regardless of the reason, loads of people are all trying to be home around dark which makes for a brutal commute.  Net/Net, avoid the morning commute on the Monday of Fall Daylight Savings and avoid the evening commute on Halloween.

2) Slow Drivers in the Fast Lane:  This is one of my huge pet peeves.  A few years ago I began to realize a pattern when it came to who was holding up traffic in the fast lane.  More often than not, it's a driver of a pick-up truck.  I'm guessing it's well over 50% of the time.  I don't know why it is or what the rationale may be, but check it out the next time you are driving 60 mph in the left lane and wonder who the lovely person is that's making everyone go so slow.  For you pick-up drivers, yes we all know you have a nice big vehicle that commands a presence and loads of room to drive.  But here's a little secret for you...the right hand lane is just as wide and was specifically designated for people who do not wish to drive the speed limit.  Try it out, we'd all appreciate the gesture.

3) Prius Drivers:  Prius drivers drive incredibly slow.  I'm a hybrid owner so I understand the concept of slower starts and even acceleration in order to keep things in electric mode.  However, I don't see non-Prius Hybrid/Electric owners drive as slow as the Prius Hybrid/Electric owners.  Tesla owners drive fast; I suppose I would too if I had one.  Most other hybrid/electric owners drive basically normal other than a bit slower starts from being at a stop.  But Prius owners just tend to drive slowly and poorly most of the time.  Is there a poor driver test you need to take before acquiring a Prius?  Do you void the warranty if you actually drive the speed limit or take a turn faster than 5 mph?  Does Prius actually stand for "I know you may be in a hurry but I'm not so please continue to waste your time behind me while I go out for my Sunday stroll"?

4) Commuters Will Try Anything to Get Through the Commute:  If idle hands are the devil's workshop, then idle driving is the devil's commute.  I've tried just about everything to pass the time and entertain myself along my drives, including some very stupid and unsafe things.  I've listened to music, listened to books (The Imperfectionists is my favorite), taken work conference calls, had many phone conversations with friends, listened to the entire bible from start to finish (Numbers is brutal), listened to PodCasts (Anything from Gimlet Media is awesome), tried about every genre of station on Sirius XM, spent a couple of weeks pretending to be an in-field traffic reporter (shout out to Leyla Gulen for entertaining this one), done loads of thinking, counted stop-lights, listened to business books, experimented with how long it would take me to drive past cars with license plates from every state (I never finished this one), and once even redlined a supplier contract (this falls into the incredibly unsafe category).  The bottom-line, you do whatever you have to do to get by.  Many thanks to all the people, writers, singers, and companies that have made my commute bearable over the  years.

5) Small Changes Make a Big Difference: This probably falls into the "duh" category but it's still worth mentioning.  Really small changes in the commute can make an enormous difference.  On the negative side, one large pot hole, a tire in the road, a broken down car, or a fender bender can wreck a commute for hours.  There aren't many on the positive side, but Government Holidays pretty dramatically reduce commute time.  If you ever wondered the size of our government, just look at the positive way your commute changes when they have the day off and you don't.  So this is where I implore CalTrans to be smart about their changes, because they do have a profound effect on us drivers.  Metering lights to enter a freeway do not work.  I don't care what your science says, as a driver it has added time to my commute and not made the freeways any less busy.  Get rid of them.  Having toll lanes closed for seemingly no reason is always a bad idea.  And whomever is in charge of the decision not to widen the Richmond Bridge is costing Bay Area commuters hours of their lives on a yearly basis...you've failed us all.  For commuters, for the love of God, please stop rubbernecking.  You really do not need to see what's going on in the other direction just because their are blinking lights.  You do not need to slow down to a crawl because one of the electric freeway signs reads, "Buckle Up, It's the Law".  And you certainly do not need to drive 40 mph below the speed limit just because there's a little drizzle.  Please be safe, but please also be smart.

6) Dear Fellow Drivers, Please Stop:  We share the road together and therefore are reliant on each other for a successful and stress-free commute.  In order to accomplish this very important mission, please do not stay stopped when the light turns green because you are talking on your phone.  Do not drive too slow because you are putting on your makeup or shaving while driving.  Do not have your left turn blinker on when you are in the far left lane.  Do not drive with one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator...those following you have no clue whether you are stopping or going.  If you find yourself in the front of the turn lane but really need to go straight, suck it up, make the turn and figure out another way to get back to where you need to go.  If you are looking to turn into oncoming traffic, do not wait until the last second before I arrive to suddenly make the turn...if you weren't bold enough in the 10 seconds before I arrived don't start being bold in the 1 second before I get there.  And finally, do not sit in a parking space for more than 10 seconds while in reverse, stop in the road to talk to friend or neighbor, have a license plate with any format of XX ❤YY, tell me how many people are in your family with stickers of people and pets, or forget to wave thanks when I've let you in front of me when you are desperately trying to get into my lane.