How to Make Commuting in Winter Easier

Driving in the snow can make a commute more stressful than usual.

Even a moderate commute can become a long nightmare during cold winters in the snowy North. Between scraping snow off your car, getting stuck behind a salt truck and being caught in a traffic jam caused by cars sliding off the road on black ice, a 30-minute commute can turn into a 2-hour fiasco. But planning ahead and getting creative can make commuting during the winter easier and less stressful.

Instructions

1. Wake up earlier. It's tempting during the cold, dark months to sleep in until the last moment. However, waking up just 10 to 15 minutes earlier than you do during mild weather will give you time to check the day's weather, scrape snow off your car if necessary and drive safely to work at a reasonable speed. Even worse than having to drive in slippery, snowy conditions is doing it in a hurry, so give yourself 5 or 10 extra minutes for driving to work on bad weather days.

2. Check the weather forecast before you go to bed and as soon as you get up in the morning. This will allow you to plan for leaving home early to avoid a bad weather front in the morning or negotiate an earlier end time to your work day to avoid predicted freezing rain in the early evening.

3. Ask your employer about flex time or telecommuting. If telecommuting is an option that you've never exercised, the onset of cold, slippery weather might be the perfect time to request to occasionally work from home. If that's not an option, ask if your company allows you to "flex" your start and end times. Having that flexibility allows you to come in late if your neighborhood gets snowed in and the snowplow comes through late in the morning, or allows you to leave work early to avoid blizzard conditions.

4. Store your car in a sheltered place, if possible. If you have a garage, put your most frequently used vehicle in it. This will save you the time and effort of scraping snow and ice off it in the morning. If you don't have a garage but have access to a carport, consider using it just in the winter for the same reason. Even if you have to pay your condo association or apartment complex a small fee to get a sheltered parking spot, you may find that the time and effort this saves you is worth it. If you leave your car in a parking structure at your destination, try to find a spot on a sheltered lower level away from open air. This will also mean less time scraping snow and ice off your windshield at the end of your workday.

5. Get some soothing music or a book on CD for your car's CD player. You don't want to distract yourself from driving safely, but if snowy or slippery weather causes a traffic jam on your route, you'll have something entertaining or comforting to make the wait less annoying.

Tips & Warnings

• Put a snow scraper under a seat or in the trunk of your car in late autumn, about a month before you think you'll actually need it. It's better to have one in the car and not need it than to be caught in an early snow without one.