July 18th, 2007
Imagine spending 3 hours daily in your car and covering almost 70 kms. daily to commute to work and back. Now add traffic snarls almost after every 5 kms. which convert your normal 45 mins drive to a 90 mins. drive. What do you get? a really stressed out person behind the wheel.
This is a common scenario for anyone who lives in
Music
#1 tip on my list. Invest in a decent MP3 player and a good set of speakers. Burn your favorite MP3’s onto couple of CD’s and you are set for the road. Sing along with your favorite songs or rock your head to the latest trance track and it will surely help you to take your mind off the traffic.
Recommendation: If you are a Trance/Techno fan visit the official audio blog of Eric Jordan. He updates hi blog with a new track every month.
Keep a fit vehicle
Take some time out to check the fitness of your vehicle. You cannot drive in peace if you hear strange sounds emitting from your car. Buy membership of an On-road recovery service, so at least you know that help is always available and you will not be stranded in the middle of road.
Accept the facts
If you cant beat them join them. If you know that you will face heavy traffic, then accept it. Don’t fret about it as it will only elevate your stress levels.
Nibble your anxiety away
Always keep some snack to nibble your blues away. Keep a pack of biscuits or a bag of chips and nibble on them when you are stuck in a snarl. Stress levels seem to increase exponentially when you are hungry and stuck in traffic.
Travel with somebody
Try to join/organise a car pool. Give a lift to your co-worker and you will not feel the pain of being stuck in jam as you will be busy discussing a project or just sharing gossip.
Divert your thought process
Think of something else other than wishing for the car in front of you to at least move an inch forward. Go over your tasks (official or personal) for the day, set up reminders or maybe dream up a new design layout. You will surely feel your stress levels drop once you stop thinking of the traffic and something else
Note: The idea for this blog post was born while I was stuck in a traffic jam.
Avoid traffic
Leave a little early to beat the traffic or better still opt for flexi timings which help you beat the rush hours both ways. (Flexi timings work best ;))
Stretch out
Standing still and nowhere to go? Why not just step out of the car and stretch your legs. Better still walk around your car pretending to check your tires. Change of posture will help you to relax your legs.
Look beyond the traffic
Think of things you will do once you reach home. These days the thought of playing with my boys when I reach home brings a smile to my face and motivate to keep my sanity while driving.
Have patience
Last but not the least have patience. Honking your horn won’t make the vehicles in front of you to move. They will only move when they can. Take a deep breath in and exhale all your anger out 
Hope these tips will help somebody out there as they have helped me during my daily drive. Feel free to leave your own tips and suggestions in the comments.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Nice list of things to do! # 3 should be priority. A lot of times stress comes up because we refuse to accept the facts!
A couple of things I do in addtion to some of the above in traffic situation is -
1. Read a book. Everytime I read the signal seems to turn green faster
2. Talk to a friend on the mobile (handfree ofcourse!)
From you list my favorite to do’s are:
1. Travel with someone
2. Divert thought process - some of my most beautiful day dreams are while drive through heavy traffic
Keep writing!
July 18th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Who would in strike in traffic as I. Almost every day.
I would suggest: if having a company or in office cab. Talk & talk more.
This will save the office gossiping hours
Sleep. Take rest. So that feel fresh when reach office.
Finish your breakfast.
Get inspired by the nature, crowd or anything around. You never know next color trends is coming from where. (It’s especially for all creative people)
July 18th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
HI,
Nice tips. But in my point appropriate for the time is to reduce the traffic instead to think about how to cope with the traffic. If we have innovative idea on this aspect, there is less chance that traffic problem will arise. One survey says, around 60% of vehicles in the traffic are with single person in it.
July 21st, 2007 at 8:10 am
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title 10 tips for a stress free drive. Thanks for informative article
June 20th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I have a better tip, Don’t Drive. I can say so because I live in San Francisco, an urban bike-friendly city but if anybody really wants to, they can find away to avoid driving all together.