While drivers are spending more time on the road, there are steps you can take to get some of that time back.<\/p>\n
HOUSTON \u2014 If it feels like your commute is getting worse, you’re not imagining things.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A recent study from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute<\/a> found that the average Houston driver lost 77 hours to traffic delays last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n In that time, the average marathon runner could have run 17 races. You could have watched more than 38 romcoms or listened to Bohemian Rhapsody more than 780 times.\u00a0<\/p>\n So what’s making things worse? Researchers found that midday traffic is much worse than it used to be. That’s cars on the roads between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n Weekends and nontraditional commute days are seeing more delays than ever before. The typical rush hour still exists, but now it’s part of a wider span of overall traffic jams.\u00a0<\/p>\n So what can you do to save yourself some time? I spoke to Doug Shupe with AAA to get some solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n “You want to plan your route,” he said. “Know where the traffic troubles typically are, and try to find alternate routes around them. You also want to use your GPS and traffic navigation apps because they’re going to let you know when there’s trouble on the roadway and how to get around that trouble.”\u00a0<\/p>\n You can read more about the Texas A&M study here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n