Due to increasing traffic and rising inner-city house prices, Californian workers are facing increasingly lengthy journeys to work and back, with residents in smaller cities doing twice daily ‘super commutes’ of more than 90 minutes each way. So they're finding ways to put the time to good use.

The German government is proposing free public transport across five of its cities in attempt to cut down its carbon emissions from cars. This ploy could work well in Germany, where public transport use is already high and environmental concerns are already a priority for most people.

A quiet read of the morning papers on the way to work may soon become a thing of past as catching up with TV shows becomes the new travel norm. With content becoming downloadable to devices, people are turning their long, unpleasant commutes into an extension of their leisure time.

With the harried nature of the modern world, time-poor individuals are resorting to services like Amazon Audible to get their reading fix without turning a page. Whether listeners are commuting or cleaning up at home, the audiobooks on offer let them fill every moment with something productive.