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Despite its high costs and stressful traffic congestions, solo driving is still the number one commuting choice. In order to inform the development of safer or more enjoyable future automotive user interface designs, we need to understand what people do while commuting to and from work. In this paper, we present a contextual inquiry study with 13 private short-distance (PSD) car commuters in order to investigate their main activities in the car and what kind of technology they use. We were, especially, interested in strategies that may support or enhance activities while being caught in a traffic jam. Results show that most PSD car commuters had chosen a more relaxed and comfortable alternative instead of the fastest route, as well as took advantage of short waiting periods for collaborative activities.