I read an article this week on Unplggd that suggested 6 ways to “beat boredom” while commuting; While not all of it applies to us self-drivers, the idea of it really hit home.

Let me put this in perspective for a second: I work from (about) 8 to 5, and drive around 12 miles each way to work, most of which is freeway. It moves pretty well, but it still takes me around 25 minutes to get to work, if I want to be there right on time. The time for getting home is similar. Not particularly terrible, even by Omaha standards, but it’s 50 minutes per day mostly wasted. That 4 hours per week adds up to over 9 DAYS per year spent staring at someone’s bumper and listening to the radio.

I’ve always wished that I have a viable way to take mass transit to work so that I could spend the ride reading or coding or whatever.  Sadly, I would have to drive quite a ways to get to a place where I could take the bus, and it really wouldn’t grant me any extra free time.

I have picked up on audio books as well as TED talks and other various podcasts, which are quite a bit better than the crap that ‘s on the radio in the morning or the same CD or MP3s for the ten-thousandth time.

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Travel by Kevin