Front Bumper

When you live in a big city like Los Angeles, traffic is an unfortunate inevitability. We’re constantly on the top of the “Worst Commutes” and “Worst Drives” lists; apparently our freeway-transfer bottlenecks are the stuff legends are made of. As much as we’d like to think we can avoid it, traffic is a wily opponent and it doesn’t play by the rules. But, don’t fret; there are ways to make traffic better-or at least bearable. Here are some tips for surviving the traffic without abandoning your car and chartering a helicopter to pick you up in the emergency lane.

1. Have a traffic radio station pre-programmed. Accidents happen-at least that’s what our mothers taught us. It’s helpful if you have a radio station ready to go when you need to tune in for updates. It might take a few minutes of pre-trip Google searching to find the best one in your area, but you could be saving yourself hours of sitting behind a 3-car pile-up not-so-blissfully unaware that there’s an easy detour.

2. Check Sigalert.com before you leave. There might be more than one freeway you can use to get to your destination, or at least a major side street option. Sigalert.com can tell you where the major problems are occurring, and the zoom out option lets you see if alternate routes are available. Besides, knowing the locations of bottlenecks and pieces of debris in the road can only help.

3. Outfit your car with a GPS. Getting stuck in bumper-to-bumper is bad enough in itself, but not knowing a way out makes it worse. Printing out directions off of Google Maps or MapQuest is all well and good, unless there’s a traffic hazard on your route. Using your phone for alternate directions is dangerous, but waiting out the traffic might be unnecessary. Make sure you have a GPS mount for your dashboard so your device can access its satellites, and don’t forget your charger.

4. Expect the unexpected. Have a water bottle, a granola bar and music in your car, and always leave a few minutes earlier than you need to. At times, there are spots of traffic you just can’t avoid, no matter how hard you try. But, having these few supplies will make the delay less painful. Leaving a little time buffer does two very important things: allow for a little bit of delay and reduce your blood pressure when the car in front of you starts to slow. If you know you’ve got fifteen minutes of padding, you will find yourself less on edge-and that can’t hurt.

5. Be Bluetooth Capable. While it is encouraged that you be Bluetooth capable whenever you’re in the driver’s seat, having that ability while in traffic is essential. There are far more cars around you and you simply need to be paying more rapt attention. Being able to make a hands-free call in traffic will help fill your traffic delay with conversation without requiring you to take your hands off the wheel or eyes off the road.