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Owning a car is liberating, but it can also try your patience. Since we’re all about making car ownership as easy as possible, we recently ran a survey to uncover the habits and headaches of Illinois drivers (one of the states where Metromile offers per-mile insurance). We hope to use these insights to guide future innovations, and maybe these stats will encourage drivers to drive a little less and walk (or bike) a little more!

Of the 500 people that responded, more than 62% commute less than 20 miles by car per day, with nearly 30% commuting less than five miles per day. Despite the low daily mileage, 36% said that what bothers them the most about driving a car in Illinois is traffic and congestion.

According to TomTom data, Chicago is one of the top 10 US cities with the most congestion, with a 27% increase in overall travel time compared to driving without any traffic. There is a 43% increase in time traveled during the morning commute and a 59% increase in the evening, which explains why Illinois drivers are so frustrated with the traffic they face in such a short commute. In 2014, the average commuter spent an extra 100 hours traveling during rush hour alone. That could have been one awesome long weekend!

We also found that the costs of driving and car ownership are frustrating. 25% stated that gas prices were one of the biggest problems associated with car ownership, and another 10% don’t like the cost of parking and parking tickets.

This is where per-mile insurance comes in. We’re learning that Illinois car insurance customers who pay-per-mile actually drive less (more on that soon!). Fewer cars on the road results in fewer traffic back-ups and ultimately fewer accidents. It also means paying for gas less frequently, and probably fewer parking tickets. Plus, when your monthly bill is based on miles driven, if you drive less then you will pay less! You can learn more about how per-mile insurance works here.

We are excited to announce that Joe Selsavage has joined Metromile as Chief Financial Officer! Joe was most recently the CFO at Hotwire, the leading travel discount site, overseeing their global finance and accounting efforts. He took them from launch to a well-known global company, and we are confident that Joe will be a key player in taking Metromile to the next level. Before Hotwire, Joe spent more than 10 years in accounting and management functions for various organizations in the Washington, D.C. area. To get to know Joe a little better, we asked him to answer some questions to gauge how well he will fit in at Metromile. Spoiler alert: he’s going to be awesome.

What excites you the most about joining Metromile?
I’m super excited to be joining such a fun company that’s disrupting the car insurance industry and growing fast. I look forward to being part of the team!

How do you commute to work?
I live in San Francisco between Noe Valley and Castro, and use Muni to get to work. Editor’s note: Way to go, Joe! We’re all for commuting via public transportation.

Where is your favorite place to road trip to?
Anywhere. I love to spend time traveling and experiencing the world. My last job was at Hotwire, so I learned a lot about how to save money on last minute travel. I can jump in the car or get on a plane any time for a last minute trip. I love to road trip to Tahoe or fly to the east coast (DC, NY or Boston) for the weekend. If I have more time, I’ll go to Brazil.

Which Metromile app feature is most helpful to you and why?
I love the street sweeping alerts. As someone living in the city with a car that I only use occasionally, the street sweeping alerts have saved me many times from getting a ticket.

We are eager to see what the future holds as Joe steps into this important role. Speaking of important roles, we are hiring a ton in SF, Tempe and Boston! Check out our job listings if you are interested in joining the Metromile team during this pivotal time.

It’s hot out there. As tempting as lounging at the pool or beach all day may be, sometimes it’s just not feasible. You’ve got places to go, people to see. And if a car is needed to get things done, the sweltering temperatures can lead to a malfunctioning A/C, burning hot steering wheel, or even a dead car battery. While we can’t bring you cooler weather, we can help you beat the heat with these hot weather car maintenance tips.

Prevent battery meltdowns: Cold weather can trigger problems with your car’s battery, but hot weather is actually just as brutal. Excessive heat can cause battery fluid to evaporate, resulting in a malfunction in the charging system. This will potentially destroy the battery. It’s a good idea to have your car inspected for safety and serviced before you head out on a summer road trip.

Get the most out of your air conditioning: Your A/C should also be serviced regularly, but if it still doesn’t seem cold enough, Mechanic Matt has some tips on how to get the most out of your system. If you are in a dry climate with low humidity, use the “fresh air” setting to bring in outside air, which allows the A/C system to cool more efficiently. And if you live in a humid area, set the A/C to “recirculate”, which eliminates the use of high-moisture outside air and makes it easier for the A/C system to cool things down.

Keep an eye on your coolant levels: Your cooling system is working overtime to keep your engine from overheating. To keep it working efficiently, make sure the coolant and distilled water mixture is 50:50. But never open a hot radiator cap, because hot pressurized coolant can spray out! If you aren’t a DIY kind-of-person, your mechanic can change the coolant for you. This should typically be done once a year, but you should check your owner’s manual for recommendations on the frequency.

Avoid sauna status: If you aren’t lucky enough to find that coveted shady spot, your parked car can quickly turn into a sauna. This unfortunate predicament can result in a burning hot steering wheel, a faded interior, and a whole lot of sweat. Consider buying a windshield sun shade which shields your car’s interior from the hot blazing sun. When you return to your car, open the doors for a few minutes to let heat escape, because glass windows insulate heat inside. You could also leave your window cracked (just a bit – you don’t want someone to be able to reach inside!) or get your windows tinted. …

Summer is upon us and those triple digit days are right around the corner. Is your car’s air conditioner ready? Here are some simple things that I suggest you do to get the most out of your A/C system:

My A/C was recently serviced but still doesn’t seem cold enough.

If your car’s A/C system has been recently serviced but still doesn’t seem cold enough, you can maximize its efficiency by following these easy steps. If you are traveling in a low humidity or dry climate such as Arizona, use your car’s “Fresh Air” setting. This brings in the outside air and allows the A/C system to cool the hot, dry air more efficiently. If you are traveling in a humid area, set your air conditioner to “Recirculate”. This will eliminate the use of the high-moisture outside air, making it easier for the A/C system to cool off the air and keeping you nice and comfortable.

Why isn’t my air conditioner blowing cold anymore?

It’s probably due to a lack of regular maintenance. Just like everything else in your car, like the brakes, hoses, and tires, the A/C system also requires routine service. The condition and level of the refrigerant is the leading factor in determining your A/C’s ability to cool. As the A/C refrigerant deteriorates or leaks, the system is less efficient at turning the liquid into a gas. This transition makes the gas cold. If you suspect your A/C system is low on refrigerant, most automotive repair shops have the ability to recharge the system. This service will usually cost less than 200 dollars, but can save you thousands of dollars in the long run as systems running low on refrigerant can damage very costly components within the A/C system itself.

One trick in determining if your A/C system is low on refrigerant is to start your vehicle, put the A/C on “High” and listen for the compressor clutch to come on. The compressor clutch will make one loud click sound as it engages. It should stay on steady. If the compressor clutch is cycling or clicking every few seconds, your system is low on charge and should be serviced. …

Lock your car doors – the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) just released their latest car theft hot spots report. California topped the list with the highest automobile theft rates in 2014, with eight cities included in the top ten. Washington was up next with two cities. But don’t be alarmed – keep reading for tips on how to prevent car theft!

While there isn’t a concrete reason why theft is so high in California, there are a few theories to consider. Factors include the large volume of cars compared to other states and the nice weather keeping cars in pristine condition, therefore making them more desirable to steal. It’s also important to note that since this was a population-based survey, an area with a much smaller population and moderate number of thefts can have a higher theft rate than an area with a more significant vehicle theft problem and a larger population.

Even if you don’t live in one of these cities, car thieves are still lurking. Here are some tips to increase the chances that your car remains safe and sound:

• Don’t leave bait. A major motivation behind car theft is to acquire whatever is inside. That new stereo or big mystery bag sitting on your back seat is mighty intriguing to a thief! Keep everything stashed and out of sight to avoid someone breaking in to snoop around.
• Lock your doors. This may seem obvious, but up to a quarter of vehicle thefts are from unlocked cars. Even if you are quickly running inside a gas station, that’s still enough time for a thief to make moves.
• Make your car ironclad. Many cars are broken into with the intent of stealing the actual vehicle, so beef up your interior to prevent this from happening. Accessories like steering wheel locks, steering column collars, and brake pedal locks are both intimidating and discouraging to a thief.
• Park smarter. It might be difficult to find a coveted spot on a busy street, but it is definitely harder for a thief to operate in a highly trafficked area. Check out our parking guide for tips.

In the unfortunate event that your car is stolen, there are tracking systems that you can subscribe to that will help find your car. Per-mile insurance customers have access to Metromile’s smart driving app, which has a car locator feature. We’ve happily been able to help several customers recover their stolen cars. If you are interested in learning about per-mile insurance, you can learn more here. Stay safe out there!

Bells are chiming, families are celebrating; it must be wedding season! If you’ll be exchanging vows in the coming months, there are a few things to consider aside from what to pack for your honeymoon. One of which is how to handle car insurance. The seemingly simple task might be a little more complicated than originally anticipated, so we’ve compiled a list to check off following your new union. Take it from Metromiler Lauren Hartung, who recently got hitched!

1. Moving in together after the wedding? Make sure to update your address on your driver’s license and car insurance (among everything else).

2. Changing your last name? Update your information with the DMV and your car insurance provider. You’ll likely need your marriage license to do this, and make sure you’ve already updated your name with the social security office for an official name change.

3. Married people get into fewer accidents than their unmarried counterparts. We combined our car insurance to one policy and saved money on our monthly premiums – plus, it was much more convenient to only pay one car insurance bill instead of two. We signed up for per-mile insurance when we moved to the city and it is saving us about $60/month! …

Grab your friends and kick off the summer solstice with a road trip to your favorite warm weather destination. Whether the drive is 30 minutes or 3 hours, the transit from your couch to a beach blanket should never be cumbersome. To help you get to your destination with ease, we’ve compiled our favorite road-tripping tips into one handy guide. And if you aren’t sure of your actual destination, we’ve got tips for that too!

Get your car road trip ready
A healthy car is definitely a prerequisite for any open road adventure. To prepare for a smooth drive, there are a few quick checks you should do. First, make sure there isn’t anything weird going on with your tires (even your spare). Look for any weird bulges or uneven wear, and use a tire gauge to measure pressure. Next, check out a site like GasBuddy to identify the cheapest and easiest place to fill up on gas, so you aren’t stuck paying top prices. You should also make sure your washer fluid isn’t running low because no one likes driving with a bug-laden windshield!

It’s also important that your mechanic is doing a more comprehensive check-up throughout the year since your brakes, cooling system, transmission service, oil levels and exhaust system can all deteriorate over time. If you want more details about getting your car road trip ready, check out this post.

Load up your smartphone
Our friends at The Zebra compiled a great list of the best apps to download before hitting the road. We don’t want to encourage distracted driving, so enlist your passengers to man the phone or wait until your car is parked.

• Waze: This community-driven app gathers map data and traffic information from other users, such as accidents, police traps, and traffic jams, and uses it to estimate the best possible route.
• Inroute: If you see your summer road trip as more of a journey through various attractions, Inroute helps you find the best possible route based on “weather, elevation, curviness, daylight and places along the route”.
• Songza: Search for music based on the time of day, your current mood, or favorite genre. Songza is completely free, and even has thousands of original playlists handmade by music experts.

You can also download the Metromile driving app, which gives important insights into your daily driving and car health!

Stash your “survival kit”
Whether you are an articulate list maker or the “see what fits into my backpack” type, there are some key items that you should keep near the driver’s seat: …

You also may have heard of innovative uses of iBeacon technology in the news lately, so what exactly is this technology and how is it being used?

Apple first introduced the iBeacon application programming interface (API) in 2013. With this API, hardware devices (aka “beacons”) emit a unique signal that can be picked up by a smartphone when close by, which then triggers apps to perform certain actions. iBeacon uses a low-energy Bluetooth signal, but it is different than traditional Bluetooth technology where a device and phone sync with each other. The beacon continually sends pings, apps on your phone listen for these signals, and when your phone comes into range the apps will respond to the pings. It’s similar to GPS-based “geo push” technology, but with more precision and less battery usage. Most beacon devices are typically small, low-energy, and powered by coin-cell batteries, making them long-lasting and easy to place anywhere.

As Apple explains, “iBeacon opens a new world of possibilities for location awareness, and countless opportunities for interactivity between iOS devices and iBeacon hardware.” Marketing lingo aside, iBeacon technology is a simple and effective way of triggering location-based actions. A popular use is for retailers wanting to send location-specific messaging. Assuming you have the retailer’s app installed, if you pass a beacon in the shop, a special offer could pop up on your phone (if you’ve opted for notifications). Virgin Atlantic used iBeacon location-aware technology to send messages to customers with electronic boarding passes in London’s Heathrow airport. Target uses beacon technology in their Cartwheel app to offer mobile-only deals to customers shopping in the store. Even McDonald’s has been testing iBeacon functionality in their restaurants. In all these scenarios, the beacon remains at a fixed location, and an action happens when an app user happens to pass by.

The following is a guest post from Jaime Netzer, editor of The Zebra’s Quoted blog.

Summer road trip season is officially upon us. This year, AAA estimated that 37.2 million Americans kicked off their Memorial Day weekend with a road trip. But traveling today doesn’t have to mean long games of license plate bingo and boredom, or hoping for the next town’s gas to be a bit cheaper—there are a slew of apps available to change all that. If you want to make your summer road trip as tech-savvy as it is fun, we’ve got three apps to download—stat.

Three Great Travel Apps

1. Waze
Quoted first wrote about Waze back in December, around holiday road trip time: “The community-driven app gathers complementary map data and traffic information from other users and uses it to estimate your best possible route. Waze users can report everything from accidents, traffic jams, speed and police traps, even the cheapest gas prices. As a result, you no longer have to rely solely on the red line—instead, you can lean on your fellow drivers.” Waze even provides alerts to locations of police along the way, so you can mind your speed when it counts most. And maybe the best news from Waze yet? Arnorld Schwarzenegger’s Terminator will soon command drivers in the app, timed with an upcoming film release. Think, “Turn left if you want to live.”

2. Inroute
Inroute is an intelligent route and road trip planner—it helps you find the best possible route based on “weather, elevation, curviness, daylight and places along the route.” Especially if you’re seeing your summer road trip as more of a journey through places rather than as direct-a-line-as-possible *to* a place, Inroute might be exactly what you need. Also, by knowing what to expect beforehand, you’ll feel both safer and better prepared for what lies ahead. Features include charts of sunrise and sunset times, the ability to search for gas, hotels, campgrounds, or places to eat close to a route, and the ability to easily reorder “waypoints”, either automatically, for the fastest route, or manually.

3. Songza
When you can’t handle yet another song on the Taylor Swift Pandora station, switch the tunes over to Songza and prepare to be delightfully surprised. You can search for music using time of day, allowing the app to play personal music concierge, or by mood or genre. The best part? Songza is completely free, and there are no advertisements, either. Found the perfect playlist? Save it and then share with your friends via Facebook, Twitter, or email. Songza has thousands of original playlists handmade by music experts, so you no longer have to play backseat DJ—there’s an app for that.

Note from Metromile: We also recommend using Metromile’s smart driving app! It gives important insights into your daily driving and car health. If you aren’t already a per-mile insurance customer you can sign up here to receive a free Metromile Tag*
*Note: The Metromile Tag is available in CA, WA, OR and IL and in cars built after 1996. Per-mile insurance customers still must use the Metromile Pulse, which plugs into the car’s OBD-II port.

At first glance, Lane Courtesy Month might seem like a trivial occasion, joining the likes of National Accordion Awareness Month and Turkey Lovers Month (also in June). We aren’t saying that you have to care about all of these “months”, but we are saying that certain occasions might deserve more attention than what they first suggest. Lane Courtesy Month is one of them.

So what exactly is “lane courtesy”? It isn’t letting someone cut in front of you in the cash-only toll booth lane. Lane courtesy is defined as the practice of yielding to or moving over for faster-moving traffic. It’s an often undervalued yet important aspect of smart driving. There’s a good chance you will get a ticket for driving 85 MPH on a road with a 65 MPH speed limit, but did you know you could also be cited for driving too slow in the left lane? Every state has a law restricting left lane usage and police are starting to crack down. It might sound like an inconsequential offense, but hogging the farthest left lane can lead to unnecessary traffic and accidents.

The reason why it is so important to leave the left lane clear is because it primarily used for passing, and if there are too many cars or a car is going too slow, it makes it much more dangerous to do so. In fact, 10% of all highway accidents are caused by changing lanes. It’s fine to use the left lane to pass a car, but once you do, move back over to the right as soon as it is clear. Even if you think you are driving at the correct speed limit, or above it, chances are there is still someone that’s going faster and wants to pass you.

A benefit of practicing lane courtesy is that you could get to your destination faster. Smooth flowing traffic means that highway capacity is optimized, which means less traffic. It’s also better for gas mileage. Vehicles use the most fuel when accelerating, so if you aren’t lane hopping, there will be less volatility and less gas usage. We can’t say road rage will totally diminish, but hopefully there will be fewer angry drivers!

If you want to continue on your smart driving endeavors, try downloading the Metromile driving app. It helps organize and optimize your trips by allowing you to see how your speed varies on each trip, how much you spend on gas and how long your drive is.