Four Apps That Make Commuting Tolerable

A long commute can be the worst part of your day. According to the United States Census Bureau, nearly 80 percent of commuters drive to work, and almost 600K Americans have “megacommutes,” or daily commutes more than 90 minutes in length. Luckily for you, here are a couple of apps that can take the edge off your daily commute, whether it’s to work or school:

Waze

Waze is an app that takes navigation and crowd-sources it. Driven by a community structure similar to a social media site, Waze is updated in real time by users around the world to include the locations of traffic accidents, bad road conditions and ways to avoid them. Users alert other users to police traps, where the cheapest gas stations are, and share routes that avoid common traffic bottlenecks. With more than 30 million Wazers currently updating the app every day, Waze can cut time off your daily commute or even just a trip to the store. At times more accurate than Google maps, Waze is free and available from the iTunes store or Google Play.

Automatic

Automatic is a combination app and on-board diagnostics (OBD-II) dongle for any cars made after 1996. The company claims it can save you up to a third of your current fuel bills by monitoring wasteful acceleration, braking, and speeding habits. Using your iPhone or Android’s GPS and mobile data, the dongle will beep whenever it detects bad driving habits and even keeps track of your fuel mileage. Additionally, Automatic sends notifications to your phone if its onboard diagnostics software detects a problem with your engine. If only it could tell you when it’s time to buy a new car.

Automatic will even call 911 if you get into a car accident. Not only is this great app likely to save you money, it could one day even save your life. Automatic is currently available for iOS and some Android platforms, and the dongle costs about $100.

Moovit

For those who use public transportation to commute to work everyday, there is hope in the form of Moovit, an app that delivers a reliable account of what’s really happening with your bus. By using a crowdsourced and user updated database similar to Waze, Moovit can accurately track your ride to work, be it bus, train or ferry. Moovit users also report over-crowded public transportation, allowing you to dodge that subway crush.

Moovit currently functions in 18 major American cities as well as in dozens of cities worldwide, and is available for the iOS and Android.

Bike Maps

Bike Maps is a dream for those who choose to pedal to work, as it creates specialized maps for cyclists that report information about roads that they need. Bike Maps details how congested the traffic is, whether sidewalks are present, if streets are paved or not, and if roads are near sources of food, water, or rest stops. Best of all, the maps are available without an Internet connection, which every cyclist knows can be spotty while commuting on a bike.

Currently, Bike Maps is available only for the iOS.