With the rate at which the world is expanding, it’s no surprise that traffic has begun piling up across the globe. In our own city, it usually takes around two hours to travel a 10 mile distance during peak traffic hours — which seems to be any time Monday-Friday and nights on the weekends. Shockingly enough, there are cities with much worse traffic than ours (which we almost refuse to believe, even though the statistics speak for themselves). Traffic may seem like a huge, inevitable headache, but there are plenty of ways you can change your methods of travel that could help lighten traffic!

1. Public Transportation

Public transportation is any form of transportation that is not a personal vehicle, bicycle, or motorcycle. Many cities refer to their public transportation options as “public transit.” In the United States, New York City sees the highest number of public transit users than any other major city. In fact, a study conducted by FiveThirtyEight Data Labs found that New York City has more public transit users than the sixteen other cities with highest volume of public transit users combined. That same study found that a majority of the best public transit systems are located along the Northeast and West coasts, while the worst public transit systems are located in the south, including Texas and Oklahoma. The Midwest has some cities with extremely successful public transit systems (Chicago, Minneapolis, Baltimore, etc.) and others that are not as successful. In this study, public transit included buses, trains, subways, and monorails. Public transit systems do cost money, but the most a passenger will likely have to pay, even in major cities, is less than $10 a day. In our weird city, we turn to Capital Metro for all of our public transit needs. To determine what your cities’ public transit has to offer, simply Google “[your city] public transit system” and you should have no problem finding fees, schedules, and services available in your city.

2. Carpooling

Got a bunch of cool friends? Get together with your work or school buddies and come up with a carpool schedule for the week! Not only is it fun to ride with friends and suffer through the traffic together, carpooling with friends will help reduce the amount of traffic in your city. Think of it this way. You and four of your co-workers all live within five miles of one another. Each morning, you all leave your homes around the same time and arrive to work around the same time. Including yourself, there are now five cars on the road headed towards the same destination at the same time. If yourself and your four co-workers got together and devised a carpool schedule, the five cars on the road each morning has now been reduced to one. While it may not seem like a huge impact, imagine the difference it would make if everyone in your office chose to carpool to work. A company with 50 employees could slash the number of cars being driven to work by 80% if everyone went five to a car. WOW!

3. Other Ride Sharing Options

If carpooling or public transit do not seem like your cup of tea, consider other ride sharing options such as taxi cabs, Uber, or Lyft. All of these ride share options operate under the same basic pretense: you call for a ride, someone arrives to pick you up, you pay based off a base rate + distance + time + tip (and in some cases a safety fee) and you’re at your destination! For the most part, taxis tend to cost a bit more than Uber or Lyft. In our awesome city, Uber costs a bit less than Lyft, but BOTH are cheaper than Yellow Cab. The drivers for Lyft and Uber are required to have a clean driving record to ensure that only the safest drivers are getting you to and from your destination. The wait times for these ride share services tend to be much less time than the wait for a taxi. During peak hours, some ride share services tend to up their prices, so be sure to check the price before you book a car! If you’re interested in finding out if Uber or Lyft are available in your city, just click the links!
Have an interesting way that you’re lowering traffic in your city? Got a traffic nightmare story you just need to vent about? How about a favorite song to listen to while stuck in traffic? Comment below and let us know what’s on your mind!