Reducing Your Drive Time

Tired of $50 fill-ups, car maintenance, and the never-ending search for a good parking spot? Reduce your drive time today with some simple lifestyle changes that will leave you healthier, happier and less stressed.

We’ve all become accustomed to jumping in the car at the drop of a hat and we find ourselves behind the wheel more and more.

According to drivelesslivemore.com, the average person spends $11,250 annually in costs associated with driving. Commuters spend about 62 hours stuck in traffic each year.

There are ways to reduce the time you spend driving by making small changes in your daily habits.
Here are 10 ways to cut back on your driving.

1. Set a Distance and Make a New “Walk Rule”

Announce to your family that there’s a new household rule: If you need to go somewhere within a mile (or whatever distance you set) you have to walk or ride a bicycle instead of going by car. Exceptions can be made for bad weather!

2. Carpool

Talk with coworkers and parents from your children’s school, sports and activities. If there are several of you who live in the same area, organize a carpool to share driving. Sharing a ride with just one other person cuts your gas consumption and pollution in half.

3. Use Public Transportation

Many communities have buses and other forms of public transportation that are not being used to their capacity. Walking to a bus stop and taking the bus into town may seem inconvenient at first, but you’ll soon become accustomed to the routine and you’ll love the savings. An added benefit to public transportation is your ability to read the newspaper, make cell phone calls, work on your laptop, do paperwork, or do some reading for pleasure.

4. Consolidate Your Shopping

Make one big shopping trip once a week, use a well-organized list, and get everything you need for the week from one big store. One-stop shopping will make it unnecessary to run into the store for milk, bread, and other last-minute purchases.

5. Use Pedal Power

Outfit your bike with a basket or other carry container and bicycle as much as you can. Many communities have bike lanes and bike racks to make bicycling more convenient. Cities like Austin, Minneapolis, Portland and Lexington, Ky., have community bike programs, which provide bikes throughout the inner-city for borrowing and public use.

6. Combine Your Errands

Save your errands for the same day and plan your outing so that you drive to a central location and walk to the bank, the dry cleaner, the movie store, the post office, and all of your stops.

7. Entertain at Home

Looking for the perfect place for dinner this Saturday night? Look no further than your own dining room. Instead of spending money, gas, and parking hassles on going to a restaurant or movie theater, invite some neighbors over for a gourmet dinner, home-cooked meal, or potluck supper, and watch an old movie you have on DVD.

8. Fill Your In-Between Time for Fewer Trips

If you find you’re driving your children back and forth to the park, the mall, the movies, dance lessons, and sports practice, make those tasks one-trip journeys. Drive your daughter and her friends to the mall, give them an hour to shop, while you pick up the office supplies you need or get the birthday gifts you need for the next two months. Take your son to baseball practice and get a quick jog in around the track while you wait to take him home.

Before you leave for one of these drop-offs, put things in your car to do: knitting or crafts projects, your laptop, your checkbook to balance, bills to pay, or letters to write.

9. Stay Home

In the 1950s and ‘60s many housewives didn’t drive at all. They spent less time shopping, going to restaurants and going across town for things that are right in their own back yard.

Eat more meals at home, make your own coffee instead of hitting the Starbucks drive-through, and take advantage of what’s in your own neighborhood instead of what’s a driving distance away.

Before you get into your car, think: What would you do if you were without a car today? Pretend your car is in the shop and make your goal to go a full day without driving anywhere.

10. Drive Wisely

When you do have to make a trip in the car, make it as efficient as possible. Take directions and keep a map in your car to avoid getting lost and backtracking. Avoid heavy traffic areas and long-light intersections. For driving techniques that save on fuel consumption, see GarageLibrary.com.  For more ways to cut down on the amount of gasoline you use, check out Treehugger.com.

~Diane Laney Fitzpatrick

Diane Laney Fitzpatrick is a former newspaper reporter and editor who writes about children, parents and families. She enjoys the simple life in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband, two sons and a daughter.