Originally Posted by
squirtdad
OP, this may not be what you want to hear, but knobby tires in that size are not optimum for commuting in terms of rolling resistance (assuming you are riding on the road). If you use the bike on and off road, that is what you have to live with, if you are 95 percent road you may want to at some point look at smoother tires...... Knobby resistance can not be fixed by higher pressure
If he's 95% road I think it's better to look at a new bike rather than smoother tires. Using a trail bike on the road is inefficient regardless of the tires. A second hand or even an ultra-cheap road bike is way way way faster on pavement.