Projects of all sizes crisscrossing the Bluebonnet service area are planned in the coming years to smooth the flow of traffic
Story by Melissa Segrest l Photos by Kelly West
POP QUIZ. Which is worse?
A: Being trapped in traffic, creeping ever so slowly, because the road you’re on wasn’t built to handle the weekday rush-hour crush.
B: Being trapped in traffic, still creeping slowly, because the road you’re on is under construction for a few years so that overpasses, lanes, wider shoulders and medians can be added.
Brad Wheelis, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation, at the site of construction along Texas 71
Depending on where you drive, maybe the answer is both. But B is the road you want. It brings the promise of a smoother future commute in which gridlock fades like a bleak memory. Plus, there are a lot of answer Bs headed to congested roads near you.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is in the process of building or planning several large, multiyear, multimillion-dollar road projects for many counties across the 3,800-square-mile Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative service area. Many other projects are planned to improve busy, smaller roads in all or part of the 14 Central Texas counties where Bluebonnet provides electricity. Resurfacing a road, widening shoulders, adding turn lanes and median barriers are all aspects of TxDOT’s plans.
“We measure the average daily traffic on our Texas roadways, and when we start to see those things tick up, we take note and ask, ‘How much is this increasing and do we expect that to continue?’,” said Brad Wheelis, spokesman for the Austin District of TxDOT. “We look at (growth) numbers, and we look for trends and then decide if we need to increase capacity or make some safety improvements on a road.”
TxDOT manages projects on interstate, U.S. and state highways, as well as farm-to-market and ranch-to-market roads. Sometimes cities or counties help with project planning, which can speed the process. Otherwise, counties and cities pay for their own road projects. Developers are responsible for the roads within the subdivisions they build.
The Austin District of TxDOT includes 11 counties, six of which are all or partly within the Bluebonnet service area: Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Lee, Travis and Williamson. The Bryan District of TxDOT oversees road projects in 10 counties, including Washington and Burleson on the eastern side of Bluebonnet’s service area, and Milam on the northern side.
Not all improvements are major projects. In many cases, “we might add shoulders, a safety enhancement,” Wheelis said. “On some of the more rural roadways, we’ll build a continuous center-turn lane — a big safety improvement that also improves mobility.”
Large road projects dot the Bluebonnet region
Five sections of Texas 71 from the Texas 130 toll road east past the bridge over the Colorado River in Bastrop will undergo dramatic changes that will ultimately eliminate traffic lights all the way to Houston.
Texas 71 from
Texas 130 to Bastrop
A multiphase, multiyear series of projects that will eventually remove all traffic lights on the highway’s main lanes from east of the Texas 130 toll road all the way to Houston. It will be several years before the projects are finished, but two significant segments are nearly complete or well underway. Construction of an overpass to carry Texas 71 traffic over Ross and Kellam roads in southeastern Travis County is planned for completion in 2024, and all lanes of the new bridge over the Colorado River in Bastrop are slated to open in 2023. Planned overpasses at Tucker Hill Lane, Pope Bend Road and FM 1209 in Bastrop County do not have timelines yet. The projects are forecast to total $199.4 million.
A new road is being built in eastern Hays and part of Caldwell counties to connect with FM 110 and create a continuous half loop east of San Marcos. The project will provide an alternative to a busy stretch of Interstate 35.
FM 110 loop
east of San Marcos
Hays County continues to be one of the fastest-growing in the country, and traffic on Interstate 35 reflects that. When it is complete, this loop east of San Marcos will provide an alternative to I-35. One of the project’s three segments is under construction. A new 6.5-mile, two-lane road with 10-foot shoulders will stretch from I-35 to Texas 80 in Caldwell and Hays counties, including construction of an overpass above Texas 21 near the San Marcos airport. That new road will connect with portions of FM 110 that will reconnect with I-35 south of San Marcos. The project began in 2022 and could be complete in 2023 at a cost of $36.5 million.
The cloverleaf interchange of U.S. 290 and Texas 36 in Brenham will be rebuilt, with a planned start in 2026 to create a direct flow of traffic on U.S. 290. Another phase of the project will widen a different stretch of the highway and add medians.
U.S. 290/Texas 36 interchange, Brenham
The existing cloverleaf design for the intersection of the two busy roads is no match for today’s traffic. “The annual average daily traffic is on the order of 45,000 vehicles per day at this location, which represents about a 100% increase in traffic in the last 10 years,” said Juan Quiroz, the TxDOT Bryan District’s planning engineer. “The new design will improve safety and operate much more efficiently.” Construction of a new direct-connect interchange is scheduled to start in 2026 and should take two to three years to build. In addition, a stretch of U.S. 290 will be widened to a four-lane highway with a wide grassy median. Altogether, “the estimated construction cost now is $103 million,” Quiroz said. “It’s one of the bigger projects in the Bryan district.”
Traffic on FM 973 in Manor is currently forced to zigzag along U.S. 290 and through the city's narrow streets. A planned realignment will create a wider, straight route on FM 973 south to Texas 130.
FM 973 realignment
east of Manor
Rapid growth across the Manor area of eastern Travis County has generated heavy traffic on both U.S. 290 and the Texas 130 toll road during peak hours. Many area drivers use FM 973 to bypass that intersection to reach Texas 130 from Manor. The existing FM 973 is narrow, zigzags across U.S. 290 and takes sharp turns through the middle of Manor. TxDOT plans to realign and expand FM 973 and route it to bypass Manor to the east. That would create a direct, continuous six-lane road with a grassy median and multiple turn lanes. The project would include construction of four overpasses and bridges over two creeks. Construction hasn’t started, and no timeline has been set, but eventually the cost of the project is estimated at $200 million.
Some other significant road projects planned for the Bluebonnet region include:
Juan Quiroz, planning engineer for the Bryan District of the Texas Department of Transportation, says reconstruction of the U.S.290/Texas 36 interchange in Brenham should begin in 2026.Texas 142 in Caldwell County: New lanes will be added on the stretch of 142 from Texas 80 east to the Texas 130 toll road. There is no timeline for the project, which is estimated to cost $53 million.
FM 60 in Burleson County: This road is slated to be widened to four lanes from its intersection with Texas 36 to west of FM 2039 near Snook. TxDOT’s project planning document estimates the project will be completed by 2024 at a cost of $34.29 million.
Texas 21 in Bastrop County: This state highway is scheduled to be widened to a four-lane divided road from CR 130 near Bastrop State Park to just north of U.S. 290 near Paige; twin overpasses will be constructed over U.S. 290 as well. The project is expected to start in 2024 at an estimated cost of $50 million.
FM 2720 in Caldwell County: TxDOT has in its project plan the addition of lanes and shoulders on the stretch of this road from Texas 21 at Uhland to Texas 142 in Lockhart. There is no timeline for the project, which is estimated to cost $53 million.
FM 969 in Travis and Bastrop counties: A short stretch in western Bastrop County is being widened and shoulders are being added for an estimated cost of $2.5 million; a 1.8-mile stretch from Hunters Bend Road to Taylor Lane in eastern Travis County will also be widened. Construction of that is expected to start in 2026 with a potential price tag of $8.95 million.
From moving utility lines to discussions of proposed road projects, Bluebonnet works in tandem with TxDOT. “It really does take a partnership to move these projects forward,” Wheelis said.
Bobby Colwell, spokesman for the Bryan District of TxDOT, spoke about the mission and the goals of his district: “We strive to implement effective planning and forecasting processes that deliver the right projects in our region, including in Burleson and Washington counties, on time and on budget. Our plans are always evolving.” Quiroz, also of the Bryan District of TxDOT, spoke about the importance of working closely with utilities such as Bluebonnet when developing a project. He added that the cooperative and TxDOT have worked together closely on different aspects of the U.S. 290/Texas 36 reconstruction.
In recent years, TxDOT completed other multimillion dollar projects on U.S. 290 from Elgin east to Giddings, improving turn lanes and widening medians and shoulders in the mostly rural stretch of road. Steel cable median barriers were added as an important safety improvement aimed at eliminating head-on collisions.
But even less populated Central Texas communities have traffic jams. All it takes is a train passing near downtown Giddings around rush hour to stop movement on U.S. 290. Even that situation is on TxDOT’s radar: A “corridor study,” a long-term, comprehensive analysis of the short stretch of highway and adjacent land, could bring an overpass or some other solution by the 2030s, with a potential price tag of $10 million.
The longer view: Planning for 2045
Doise Miers, community outreach manager for the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, or CAMPO, says the region’s population is expected to double by 2045.
While the Texas Department of Transportation plans many of its projects for the next decade, another road-planning organization in the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative region looks more than 20 years into the future.
The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, or CAMPO, is mandated by the federal government to work with a range of area elected officials, state and local transportation agencies and technical experts, including Bluebonnet at times. CAMPO develops plans that address all aspects of transportation, including roads and bicycle lanes, transit systems and future growth. It covers six Central Texas counties, five of which — Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson — are within all or part of the Bluebonnet service area.
CAMPO’s plans and studies are key in determining how federal money is allocated for transportation projects.
With some of the nation’s fastest- growing counties in CAMPO’s territory, “it is difficult to get ahead of the growth,” said Doise Miers, CAMPO’s community outreach manager. “We’re looking at doubling the population by 2045 for the entire six-county region. Right now, we’ve got about 2 million people in the area and we’re looking at probably more than 4 million people in the next 25 years.” Counties east of Austin are where CAMPO expects the most rapid growth.
“As part of our 2045 plan, we put together a regional arterial study,” Miers said, that looks at improvements to increasingly busy farm-to-market and ranch-to-market roads. “We want to see how those could be improved and made a little bit more robust, with something as simple as a left-turn lane.”
CAMPO is already working on its 2050 plan. “Having input from the utility providers and other infrastructure groups is really helpful because you all have a sense of what your service needs will be in the coming decades,” Miers said. “Us having that input helps our plan be more effective and more on point.”
Card Teaser
Projects of all sizes crisscrossing the Bluebonnet service area are planned in the coming years to smooth the flow of traffic
It’s time to dust off grandmother’s old box of recipes and whip up the family’s favorite traditional dish for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s. But before you start, share that recipe with all of your Bluebonnet friends and family!
Submit your family’s most beloved holiday recipe to sidni.carruthers@bluebonnet.coop or look for requests on our social media posts. We’ll post them on our website at bluebonnet.coop/holiday-recipes. Want to start early? The first recipe is there, for Mimi Delk’s Divine Divinity.
Mimi Delk's divine divinity
2 cups sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
1/3 cup hot water
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup nuts
Directions:
1. Prepare 2-3 baking sheets with wax paper that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.
2. Mix sugar, corn syrup and water together. Cook to hard ball stage.
3. Pour over beaten egg whites and stir.
4. When mixture is cool, add vanilla extract and nuts by folding in.
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls on to wax paper.
Tips:
Make on days when it is cool and sunny outside, with low humidity.
Spraying your teaspoon with non-stick spray before scooping and dropping to wax paper will help unstick.
Card Teaser
It’s time to dust off grandmother’s old box of recipes and whip up the family’s favorite traditional dish for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s.
Solar power, battery storage and EVs were the talk of the day
By Sidni Carruthers
The morning started off overcast and chilly, but that did not deter almost 100 Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative members from attending the co-op’s 2022 Energy Expo on Oct. 22. It was Bluebonnet’s seventh renewable energy event for members.
Micah Jasuta, a Texas Solar Energy Society member and past board chair, gave attendees a presentation on the basics of renewable energy systems and battery storage. Sarah Beal photo
The Energy Expo, previously known as Solar Day, was at the cooperative’s service center in Maxwell, midway between Lockhart and San Marcos in Caldwell County. It was the first year Bluebonnet has offered the in-person event since 2019.
This year, in addition to receiving expert information, hearing a detailed presentation and getting answers to questions about solar energy systems, members learned about residential battery storage arrays and electric vehicles.
As it has in previous years, the Texas Solar Energy Society offered a Solar 101 presentation and an installer fair. One Bluebonnet member who has both a solar system and battery storage at his home answered questions about his experience.
Bluebonnet staff members talked to attendees and provided information about the increasingly popular topic of whole-house battery systems that can store power generated by home solar arrays. Also included in the day’s events was information about electric vehicles and tours of Bluebonnet’s Maxwell service center, which has 292 solar panels and two rainwater collection tanks that each hold 30,000 gallons of water.
Micah Jasuta, a member of the nonprofit Texas Solar Energy Society and its former board chairman, provided a presentation about how solar installations work, their costs, how effectively they reduce power bills and what questions to ask installers. He also spoke about common myths and misconceptions about solar-generated power, best practices when choosing an installer and the basics about battery storage.
After learning that the federal government will continue to offer — and increase — tax credits for renewable energy and battery storage systems, Bluebonnet members Bob and Nancy Arnold decided to make the drive from Lexington in Lee County to attend the event. “We want to do our due diligence,” Bob Arnold said. The couple has been looking into solar energy systems for several years.
Stephanie Morales, a Bluebonnet member from Dale in Caldwell County, came to the Energy Expo in search of the latest information. “I know solar has been around a while, but I know batteries have improved, so I want more information to make the most educated decision on whether to go solar or not,” she said.
The most interesting part of the event for Audrey Castro, a Bluebonnet member from Cedar Creek in Bastrop County, was Jasuta’s presentation. “He had a ton of information, some I knew, but some I didn’t know,” Castro said.
Bluebonnet has had a 32% increase in the number of solar energy installations on its grid since 2021, and the co-op estimates that pace will continue for several years.
To learn more about renewable energy, go to bluebonnet.coop/energy-solutions, or call member services at 800-842-7708. Get more information from the Texas Solar Energy Society's website, txses.org.
Card Teaser
Solar power, battery storage and EVs were the talk of the day
Commuting subsided during the pandemic, but many Bluebonnet-area drivers have returned to the weekday trek. Some of them never stopped.
Sharon Jayson l Photos by Laura Skelding
Rick Gaskamp is a Brenham native who loves his hometown so much that rather than move, he's spent the past 21 years as a weekday commuter to Houston. He's got 414,000 miles on his 2013 black pickup, which is just the latest in a series of trucks and vans he's driven to and from work most weekdays.
Every Monday through Friday, the self-employed carpenter hops in his Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD and drives some 80 miles to various job sites in the city, where he works on new and remodeled multimillion-dollar properties for a homebuilder. He earns more than he did when he worked closer to home. Each one-way trip takes an hour and 15 minutes, an endurance stretch Gaskamp knows well from his thousands of hours of experience.
He leaves home at 5 a.m. and returns 12 hours later. "I know what time to leave to get there before the traffic is bad," he said, explaining that he can be at a job site by 6:15 a.m. if he leaves at 5 a.m.
"I've learned a lot of shortcuts," said Gaskamp, a Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative member. "When I get halfway to Houston, I listen to Houston traffic (radio reports). If there's a wreck on the way I normally go, there are multiple ways to go around it."
That is, unless he's already on the road where the collision occurred. "Sometimes you just got to wait," he said.
The commuting culture had a major shakeup during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown and the rise of remote work. No one knows if it will return to pre-pandemic levels. Today, nearly 60% of U.S. workers have the opportunity to work from home at least one day a week, according to a 2022 report by McKinsey & Company, a global consulting firm. Of those workers, 35% can work from home five days a week, the report said.
That's all well and good for those who spend a lot of time at a desk and in virtual meetings, but many Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative members have jobs that require them to return to their workplaces. Plus, steady growth and development in the region -- and employers beckoning workers to come back -- means plenty of commuters are returning to Central Texas roads.
Before the pandemic, more than 80% of Texas workers drove to their jobs alone, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. During the height of the pandemic, carpooling was discouraged to contain the virus spread.
Now, along with more workers returning to the office as well as hybrid work schedules, experts say the nature of rush hour has changed, with many doing errands at various hours rather than on the way to, or from, work. The price of gasoline, and the inevitable wear and tear on vehicles, also factors into today's commuting choices.
In 2019, the average one-way travel time to work was at an all-time high of 27.6 minutes, according to the U.S. Census. But experts say the 2020 Census commuting data released this year is skewed by the pandemic, making a pre-COVID comparison unreliable.
"We just don't know what (commuting) is going to look like a year or two or five from now," said David Schrank, a senior research scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute in Bryan. "If you put your 2019 hat on, we had a pretty good idea about what a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday looked like if you were one of those commuters. We spent decades getting to that point. All that got undone in a year or two (by COVID) and now it's going to take a few years for that to settle in and figure out what that's going to look like."
Legions of workers are redesigning their ways of working. Their transportation decisions will depend on employment opportunities, growth in their area, road construction or improvements, the availability of mass transit and carpooling, and, of course, remote-work options. Bluebonnet members across the cooperative's 3,800-square mile service area are making these decisions daily.
For Meredith Brown of Luling, the 45-minute drive to her job at Texas State University in San Marcos means she's on Texas 80 door-to-door -- unless there's a problem.
"The other day, there was a wildfire and they had 80 blocked off," she said. But because she grew up in the area, Brown knew how to use back roads to get to work.
Brown has been assistant to the executive director of housing and residential life at Texas State since 2015, but she has commuted from Luling only for a few months. She and her family moved from family-owned property in another part of Caldwell County in mid-July. Her commute used to be just 20 minutes. Now, with just one lane in each direction on Texas 80 and three traffic lights, she can drive the majority of the 30 miles to the office with a 65 mph speed limit until Martindale, 7 miles east of San Marcos. There, the speed limit drops to 55 mph.
"Commuting doesn't bother me," Brown, a Bluebonnet member, said. "It's not bad for me -- it's not like I-10 or I-35 that have massive traffic. It's not super congested." She makes the drive in her sturdy 2018 silver Ram 1500 pickup.
Brown's youngest child attends preschool in Martindale, so they leave their house about 6:15 a.m. She drops off her son about 15 minutes later, then works on campus from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. She picks up her son and they typically arrive home by 5:45 p.m. Independent transportation research consultant Alan Pisarski, of Falls Church, Virginia, has spent 35 years analyzing commuting. Workers whose jobs involve ideas and information -- a rapidly growing portion of the workforce -- can more readily work remotely, he said. Also, many urban dwellers moved to the suburbs during the height of the pandemic and are "much less interested in coming back," he said.
"It will be 2023 before I can say it's comparable to 2019," he said. Today, even the definition of a commute is unclear, Schrank, the A&M research scientist, said. "The question is 'Are you a commuter if you drive in one day a week?' Commuters used to be five-day-a-week travelers," he said.
Roads in parts of Bluebonnet's service area are congested now, in part, because of the jump in population over the past two years, said William Frey, a census and demographics expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. In particular, he noted growth in Bastrop and Caldwell counties.
That is no surprise to Jason Giulietti. He's president of the Greater San Marcos Partnership, an economic development nonprofit that serves the City of San Marcos, as well as Hays and Caldwell counties, which he said are experiencing "exponential and record-setting growth."
Giulietti is a transplant, having moved to Texas from Connecticut in early 2019.
"I live in New Braunfels," he said. "When I look at my neighbors, every person on my street is from another state."
Besides residential development, fiscal 2021 set a record for his organization, completing 14 new development project deals on the heels of six the previous year. Six of the 14 projects are within the city of San Marcos. A 1.1 million-square-foot Amazon facility opened in November 2021, adding to already existing Amazon sites and cementing Amazon as the largest employer in the San Marcos region.
"What we measure that drives the jobs and residents here is they don't have to commute to an Austin or to a San Antonio for those jobs," Giulietti said. "The more we bring the jobs locally, the less they have to commute."
That's not the case for Laura Fohn, a Bluebonnet member who lives in The Woodlands neighborhood of Bastrop near Texas 21 and Texas 71. She commutes 26.4 miles each way to Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas near downtown Austin.
"If I leave before 7 a.m., I (miss) the rush at Del Valle. Once you cross over into Travis County, it gets kind of rough," she said. For her return home, she leaves work around 6 p.m.
Trouble spots on her route are mostly on Texas 71, at intersections where traffic lights and construction are still clogging the road. For her in-office hours as director of operations, Fohn said she leaves home as early as she can to spend more time with her family later. Although she said she works more than the 8-to-5 day, her aim
is not to waste time driving. Her morning commute takes about 45 minutes, and her drive home takes about an hour.
Traveling between 7-9 a.m. or 4-6 p.m. would take her an hour each way, she said. "It depends on the day," she said, "but I want to get in early and not leave time sitting on the road."
Although Fohn's commute is the same distance as when she lived in South Austin 10 years ago, Fohn said her travel time from Bastrop is quicker. During the pandemic lockdown, she still had to be at her office at the medical center every day.
"That's when I knew what (a quicker commute) could be. I could get home in 25 minutes."
Two years ago, Fohn traded in her Toyota Sequoia SUV for a smaller, four-door Lexus SUV. During her time in traffic, she "makes a lot of phone calls" and listens to podcasts and books by popular researcher and lecturer Brené Brown.
"I make it a positive since I know I can't control the situation," she said. "I don't let it get me down, although it does sometimes." Margaret Gómez, the Travis County Commissioner for Precinct 4, has been in Del Valle for many years, and watched its growth and development for decades.
"There is quite bit of commuting between Travis County and Bastrop County and Caldwell County," she said. "Most of it is families who have left Austin to get away from the high taxes and high cost of living."
She calls Del Valle "the last of the rural areas of Travis County." Gómez said major projects in Del Valle, including the Circuit of the Americas motor racing track and facilities -- as well as Tesla's global headquarters and Gigafactory Texas -- have fueled even more development.
Manor in eastern Travis County has become a more affordable option than Austin, said Scott Dunlop, Manor's development services director. The city "is still a better value," he said. "A majority of respondents (to a 2016 survey by the City of Manor, conducted by GrantWorks Inc.) said they moved here because of housing costs." More than half of respondents had lived in Manor five years or less, and almost 70% said they commuted to Austin for work. Just 14% reported working in Manor.
An online City of Manor survey also conducted by GrantWorks in summer 2021 for city planning into 2050 asked about the length of residents' one-way commutes. Almost 41% said it took 30 to 45 minutes to get to work; almost 28% said 15 to 30 minutes and 24% said more than 45 minutes. Just 7% said less than 15 minutes.
Such short commutes are but a dream for Gaskamp, the carpenter who drives to Houston five days a week. If he doesn't end his workday by 3:30 p.m. and get on the road within 10 minutes, he faces a two-hour minimum commute home.
Each weekday morning, he tunes into Brenham radio for news and music until he crosses the Brazos River, where he loses that station and switches to radio news with Houston's weather and traffic. He knows if he left his home at 6 a.m., his journey would take two hours rather than only 75 minutes when he leaves at 5 a.m.
It may sound like an extremely long commute to some folks, but Gaskamp's system is finely tuned.
"The alarm goes off at 4 and I hit snooze once or twice and get a cup of coffee and pack my lunch," Gaskamp said. "I'm so used to my routine."
Commuting in & around the Bluebonnet area
The U.S. Census Bureau's most recent data is a five-year estimate (2016-2020) of the number of workers commuting daily. The 2020 data skewed lower than normal because of the pandemic's impact on commuting. County totals include areas outside Bluebonnet's service area. Travel is mean time, rounded.*
Commuters: 13,916
Travel time: 28 minutes
Commuters: 37,595
Travel time: 35 minutes
Commuters: 7,334
Travel time: 28 minutes
Commuters: 18,916
Travel time: 34 minutes
Commuters: 10,785
Travel time: 24 minutes
Commuters: 112,192
Travel time: 31 minutes
Commuters: 7,911
Travel time: 30 minutes
78653 ZIP code, includes Manor area Commuters: 14,598
Travel Time: 30 minutes
78617 ZIP code, includes Del Valle area
Commuters: 13,577
Travel time: 32 minutes
78621 and 78747 ZIP codes, includes parts of Bluebonnet service area
Commuters: 22,402
Travel time: 32 minutes, 34 minutes
Commuters: 15,617
Travel time: 21 minutes
* Mean travel time is obtained by dividing the total number of minutes by the number of workers 16 and older who did not work at home. Most times are rounded.
Buckling up for a long drive to work? Just breathe.
By Denise Gamino
The grind of a daily commute to work can leave you frazzled and a bit breathless.
Knowing how to calmly breathe through the stress can be the best fix.
Slowing your breathing by making your exhalations twice as long as your inhalations, for example, can reduce commuting stress, according to health research.
"Slow breathing practices could transform the automobile commute from a depleting, mindless activity into a calming, mindful experience," according to a 2018 study by Stanford University researchers and others.
The study, "Just Breathe: In-Car Interventions for Guided Slow Breathing," used voice-guided prompts and vibrating seat and back cushions to remind drivers to achieve slow, rhythmic breathing. But drivers really don't need electronic prompts. Any driver at any time can work to slow down their breathing just by lengthening exhalations, such as inhaling to a count of 5, holding briefly, and then exhaling to a count of 10.
And, working to keep your breath slow and steady in traffic is a free exercise with big stress-management benefits.
Here are other ways to stay safe and alert during long commutes:
Concentrate on watching the road and keeping your hands on the wheel. Never text or email while driving, even if you can use voice commands only. Use the time to stop working.
Do isometric exercises. Contract your abdominal muscles by pulling the belly button inward toward your spine and hold for 10 to 60 seconds. Or contract and release thigh or calf muscles -- don't forget to breathe.
Change the angle or position of the driver's seat regularly so your spine isn't in the same position every time you drive.
Expect unexpected road delays and eliminate worries about being late to work by leaving 15 minutes early.
Try the occasional different route to or from work, if an option is available, to relieve boredom. Knowing the back roads and alternate routes can also be handy in case of gridlock.
Listen to podcasts, and try ones about topics you know little about. Change up what you listen to: Try practicing a foreign language or exploring audiobooks.
Bring your own coffee or water, protein bars and fruit for emergencies, and have backup power supplies for your phone or flashlight.
Use a lumbar or seat cushion that provides support and helps absorb road vibrations.
Sources: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Healthline, National Institutes of Health, Robert Half human resources company, Self magazine
Are you one of these kinds of long-haul commuters?
The U.S. Census Bureau tracks commuting on roads across America. It has designations for three types of long-distance commuters. With the decrease in long-distance work drives starting in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's likely the numbers of these long-haul commuters has dropped. Still, Central Texas drivers may find themselves in one of these categories of far-distance trekking to work.
EXTREME COMMUTER
This is someone who travels 90 minutes or longer to work, one way (that's 3 hours a day of driving!)
LONG-DISTANCE COMMUTER
A worker who travels 50 miles or farther to work, one way, for a total of 100 miles driven every workday.
MEGA-COMMUTER
Let's hope you're not in this category. This is a commuter who drives for 90 minutes or longer and 50 miles or farther to work, each way, each workday.
Card Teaser
Commuting subsided during the pandemic, but many Bluebonnet-area drivers have returned to the weekday trek. Some of them never stopped.
