Make Your Drive to Work More Efficient & Less Stressful

By: TravelSmart Team | Added: February, 2011

Travelling by car remains the most popular way of getting to work. Not surprisingly, traffic volumes are growing quickly (twice as fast as the growth of our population!), resulting in an extra 63 new cars on the road every day. This congestion has caused transit speeds to slow down by 7% over the past decade, although it probably feels like more.

Reduce the Surprises (and the stress) in Your Commute

Commuting by car can be stressful, but there are tools available that can help mitigate some of the more frustrating elements.

Maintain your car and check the oil level regularly. This will help reduce CO₂ emissions.

• Driving Map - TransLink's online Traffic Map provides alerts for Metro Vancouver and the Sea to Sky highway, so you'll have the latest information to fine-tune your route and avoid the nastier areas. There are even options for you to view construction areas, traffic cameras, border cameras, and congestion levels specifically for the Cassiar Connector and the George Massey Tunnel.
• Traffic Cameras - Use the live traffic cameras to view specific intersections and stretches of highway all the way from Delta to West Vancouver, so you'll see exactly how traffic is flowing.

10 Tips for Driving More Efficiently

1. Maintain your car and check the oil level regularly. This will help reduce CO₂ emissions.
2. Ensure your tires are all inflated at the same and proper level. Improper levels can increase fuel consumption by up to 4%.
3. Lighten your load. Extra weight will force your engine to work harder and burn more fuel.
4. Make your car more aerodynamic by closing your windows and removing unused roof racks.
5. Don't start your car until you're ready to drive. You're just burning off gasoline at 0 km/h otherwise.
6. Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas and money. Every time you accelerate or brake suddenly, your engine uses more fuel and produces more CO₂.
7. Anticipate traffic flow. Look ahead in order to try and avoid unnecessary stopping and starting within the flow of traffic.
8. Learn to glide. Try to flow with traffic and not accelerate or brake needlessly. Every time you brake you're throwing away the energy it took your car to get up to that speed.
9. Use air conditioning only when necessary - it increases fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions by up to 5%
10. When accelerating try to gear up quickly. Higher gears are more economical in terms of fuel consumption.

Options When Commuting by Car

Of course, the most efficient way of commuting by car is to share it. Think about either sharing the ride, sharing the car or splitting the commute.

• Ride-sharing, or carpooling, is one of the most effective ways to reduce pollutant emissions (up to 150 tonnes a year). By sharing the ride, you're not only taking extra cars out of traffic, you'll be saving money on gas and parking too!
• Carsharing, or car co-ops, allow a group of drivers to share a fleet of cars. You pick up the car when you need one, then park it once you're done. By keeping a few cars in rotation (as opposed to individual ownership), you're reducing the overall number of vehicles on the road.
• Park and Ride lots give you the best of both worlds. Drive to one of the many lots around Metro Vancouver, park (some are free, some are not), then hop on transit and bypass all the rush hour traffic.

Do you have tips, ideas or questions about making your drive more efficient? Share your experiences or start a conversation with other users by submitting a comment below.