Tom Coughlin knows he can’t conquer the traffic. He cannot command the congestion on Route 17 to dissipate, or blow an air horn to clear the Lincoln Tunnel. Rather than admit defeat, suck it up, sit and wait, Coughlin The Impatient opts for non-confrontational methods to get around the metropolitan area.

“You know how it is in this part of the world; it takes so long, even if it’s just traffic involved,” Coughlin said. “You could waste two or three hours and you just can’t do it. I do everything I pretty much can to avoid it.”

He beats rush hour by arriving at daybreak at Giants Stadium. The evening crush is long gone by the time he departs. If only such discipline and a trusty alarm clock could help the Giants ensure that Coughlin’s second year at the helm flows so freely.

In 11 days, he’ll motor upstate to Albany for the start of training camp, this summer expecting to reap greater rewards than last. No one wanted to admit the inevitable reality that year No. 1 under Coughlin was a transition, with players trying to figure out a demanding new head coach as the organization hunkered down, weeded out the old and ushered in the Eli Manning era.

An introductory season that included a surprisingly strong start, a dismal eight-game losing streak and, ultimately, a 6-10 record has Coughlin more determined than ever to prove that his methods – so often criticized and at times misunderstood – can and will succeed.

Skeptical veterans were pleased a year ago to learn that Camp Coughlin was no more physically rigorous than life under kindly Jim Fassel. The real pressures were psychological, triggered by Coughlin’s ceaseless harping on every mistake, his need to alert players to the slightest nuance that did not measure up.

This, Coughlin will never change.

“We know we’re human and we know we’re capable of making errors,” Coughlin said. “Therefore, what is wrong about constantly trying to sharpen our skills to be better than we are at what we do? And not say, ‘I’m at this point in my career and I do this.’ It doesn’t work that way. We’re all in the same boat. There’s nothing written down that says, because I’ve been doing this X amount of years, I’m not capable of improving in some area.”

A thick skin is advisable when Coughlin is on the scene. He does, however, admit he’s attempted to smooth some of the rough edges away. If a certain player is too sensitive to be chastised in public, a private tutorial might be more beneficial.

“Maybe you and I need to get together by ourselves, where we can look at something and I can correct it that way,” Coughlin said, “so everybody else isn’t just listening every time I tell you your first step is not gonna get it done that way or your helmet is not in the right place.”

Coughlin grimaces at the suggestion that the Giants will be more comfortable with him, this time around. For Coughlin, comfort leads to complacency – and he does all he can to foster an edgy alertness among his team. Tim Lewis, the defensive coordinator, burst out laughing when it was suggested that his boss had in some way mellowed.

“I’ve read the same articles saying he talks to us more,” Lewis said. “It’s neither here nor there. He’s a heck of a football coach. I like the comments the players are making – even the ones who were slightly troubled or whatever last year. They’ve all said the atmosphere is one that they understand the head coach is what he is, he’s not changing, so the sooner you can jump on board the better off we’ll all be.”

Coughlin’s hope is to “have the focus be on the team and our players – because that’s where it belongs – and not on this first-year coach.”

Manning, as the anointed franchise quarterback, will naturally command great scrutiny, but Coughlin is sure to attract his share, like it or not.