Borrow the audiobook for the drive
Many people say an audiobook turns a commute into time you wanted, and many say the library lends them free. What to put on, and when to rest.
Built from people with an hour or more of road each way and nothing on but the radio, and from a parent parked while a child slept and a grandparent driving a teenager eight hours.
You have an hour each way, five days a week, and the radio has been playing the same eleven songs and the same adverts since spring. People are the source here. Some of them were not driving at all, and they get their own section.
Borrow an audiobook from your public library’s lending app before the next drive, because a story long enough to last the week turns the commute into time you wanted, and the library lends it free.
The library route
Many people say the thing people assume costs a subscription is on the library’s shelf for nothing: audiobooks, e-books and in some systems podcasts, through the library’s own lending app, with a library card and, one person says, very little setup. One person holds cards from two library systems to widen the catalogue and the borrowing limit; one person says one of two library apps has the fuller series and another disagrees — and this page names neither, because the answer is whichever your library uses. One person downloads on the home connection before leaving so the drive does not depend on signal. The page here on borrowing from any library carries the route for a title your own branch does not hold.
What to put on, and the cautions first
The safety line above is people’s own and it comes first: if you picture what you hear, if comedy closes your eyes, or if a voice is how you fall asleep, the spoken word is not for your car, and reading is for the passenger seat only. Some people say a long commute raises your risk by the hours alone, so whatever you choose must be droppable mid-sentence.
Then: many people say an audiobook, because a story spans weeks of drives, is hands-free, immersive, and holds you longer than music does; many say podcasts, for the variety, and some people say the talk moves the time faster than music. Many say comedy for the morning, with the warning above. Many use the drive for a language, and some say a language near your own is the one that takes. The first question below carries the detail — the two-books habit, the learners’ argument about the free app, the person who says radio is adverts — without naming a single show, because people named many and the point is the shelf, not the title.
Fill it, or let it be nothing
People argue this across many discussions, and the fork above carries it: use the hour for a language or a book, or treat it as the only stretch of the day with nothing asked of you. Some people say the second outright — mandatory downtime, embrace it — and individual people use the drive to think, to worry on schedule so the worry does not follow them home, to talk problems through aloud, or to phone family. The decider people give is your energy and where else in the day rest lives, and the second question below carries both sides. One person says the argument is false, because fiction is rest and learning at once.
If you are not the one driving
Many people say the passenger has the option the driver does not: an e-reader, self-lit and small, if a moving car does not make you sick. One person was a parent parked half an hour a day while a child slept in the back; another was a grandparent driving a teenager eight hours and hoping a podcast would start a conversation; the third question below carries both — the person who says the nap is the productivity, the argument people have over whether a shared show helps or stops the talking, and the warning to check any show before a child hears it. What the law where you drive says about phones and hands-free calls, how to handle a traffic jam, and how to manage fatigue across a long daily total are the gaps people name and do not fill.
If you are the visual thinker, the laugher or the person the calm voice puts to sleep, the safety line is the page and instrumental music is the answer. If the commute itself is the problem — people argue whether an hour and a quarter each way is worth any job — that is a different page, and one person spent the drive searching for the next job by voice.
The community disagrees on this one
Use the drive, or let it be the one hour that asks nothing of you? People split on this. Both sides.
Fill it
Many people say the hour is too large to waste — a language, a book, a course — and that arriving having learned something is what makes the drive bearable; one person keeps two books on the go and picks by energy.
Let it be nothing
Some people say the drive is the one stretch of the day with no obligation in it, that treating it as another task is exhausting, and that rest — or watching a sleeping child, or thinking — is the use; one person says fiction is both.
The decider people give is your energy and where else in the day rest lives: a commuter with a sleeping child in the back, or with no downtime at home, is on the second side; someone with a quiet evening ahead and a skill to learn is on the first. Neither side wins, and the library shelf serves both — one person says fiction is rest and learning at once.
Common questions
What should I actually put on?
Something long, people say, and free. Many people say an audiobook is the thing that changes a commute, because a story carries you across weeks of drives the way a playlist cannot, and one person keeps two on the go — one demanding, one light — and picks by how tired they are. Many people say podcasts, for the variety: some people say a talk show or a long interview makes the time move faster than music, and individual people favour history, science, storytelling and true-crime shows, none of which this page names. Many people say a comedy album or a comedy radio station brightens a morning drive and keeps them awake, with the warning above about laughing at the wheel; people argue comedy against audiobooks, and the decider they give is whether you want to be entertained or absorbed. Many people use the drive for a language — an audio course, a learners’ podcast — and some say a language close to your own is the one that takes on a commute; one person says it caused them close calls while driving, and people argue whether the popular free app teaches much, with one person pointing out it has improved. One person says traditional radio is repetition and adverts and not worth the hour. What to do about traffic jams, fatigue over a two-and-a-half-hour daily total, and a commute too short for any of this are gaps people name.
Do I have to use the time well? I just want to be left alone.
Then people on the other side of the fork are yours. Many people say fill it — a language, a lecture, a book you would not otherwise finish; some people say the drive is the one hour of the day when nothing is asked of you, and that treating it as another job is exhausting and misses the point. Individual people use the time to think — one keeps a set slot in the drive for worrying so the worry does not come to bed, one talks problems through aloud, one says the highway is where their mind clears; one person warns talking to yourself becomes a habit you may not notice in company. One person phones family on the drive and calls it the only time they would otherwise not have; one person warns calls distract if not done carefully. Other discussions have the same argument, and the decider people give is your own energy and whether the rest of your day has any downtime in it. If it does not, the nothing is the productive choice, and one person says fiction counts as rest and as learning at once.
I am not the driver. I am parked with a sleeping child, or in the passenger seat.
Other readers turn up too, and they get their own paragraph. If you are the passenger, many people say an e-reader or tablet is the visual option audio drivers do not have — self-lit, adjustable, small — though reading in a moving car makes some people sick, and one person says the light in a car is poor for paper; people argue audio against reading across some discussions, and the answer is safety for drivers and stomach for passengers. If you are a parent parked for half an hour while a child naps in the back, one person says the productive thing to do is nothing — rest, or watch them sleep, because those days end; individual people knit, journal in short bursts, read on a device, or ring someone; some people argue for learning and some for rest, and one person says look at whether the schedule that creates the wait can move. Whether it is safe to step out of a car with a sleeping child in it is a gap people name; the line here is this page’s own, not theirs: do not. If you are driving a teenager a long way and hoping a podcast will make you talk, people argue it: some say a story or a science show gives you something to talk about, some say the media stops the talk that a car ride starts on its own, and the decider is what the two of you already do in a car — one person says start with nothing and see; one person warns a fifteen-year-old may sleep or text and that is not a verdict on you; one person says ask what they like and mean it. Checking any show for language and content before a child hears it is a warning individual people give, one show at a time.
Questions this step helps with
What people worked out
Shorter, plainer notes on the same ground — each with the number of people behind it.
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