Stuck in traffic? That's five days of your life you're not getting back

To be fair to the LGA, and having looked briefly at the actual report, it does seem quite enlightened, dealing with alternatives to the status quo. (That could have been mentioned in the article on this cycling website!)

The worry is that the LGA think the solution is more of the failed model - more roads and wider roads, which will encourage more traffic and produce more congestion, and frighten more people off the roads on bikes.

I'm sure some councils are starting to get it. It's time to think and act differently, and encourage more efficient ways of getting around.

It's because of WHAT you type on the keyboard that you are asked to come into the office, not so much WHERE you do the typing!

Commuting by car is lame. I am shuddering at the idea of having to clear the windscreen twice daily in winter (Scotland). Bike I have to spend 10 minutes donning armour yes, but at least that's inside!

"The LGA said councils need the same sort of long term funding certainty for local roads maintenance that is enjoyed by Highways England and Network Rail. This is desperately needed to help councils tackle the £12 billion roads repair backlog and congestion they face on local roads."

Long term funding certainty enjoyed by Network Rail? Really? The same Network Rail that has just had to abandon half the electrification of GWML, scrap various local line reopenings and planned new stations? The Network Rail that, in the calculation of Cost:Benefit ratios for projects,  is obliged to consider fuel duty lost to the Exchequer as a result of road traffic moving to rail on the cost side? 

People in office jobs that spend most if not all of their day reading/writing emails and filling in spreadsheets. Their companies are saying "come to this place 20 miles away to type into a keyboard".

Crazy. 2017 and I'm still the only person I know (apart from colleagues) that works from home on a very regular basis.

It would be nice to think that individual councils will actually take on board the need to make alternatives to driving more attractive. Sadly the prospect of upsetting any motorist who might vote for them or give money to them usually results in ineffective compromises at best.

to be honest - I spend more time than that on the toilet

So, not 5 days of your *life*, then: more like 225 days over a working career.

In fact, it can be painted as even bleaker than that. The report says that residents of Bristol, only the 9th most congested city in the UK, lose 148 hours per year - that's over 6 full days. Presumably that's an average and the driviest Bristolians lose a lot more than that. And it's all waking hours, and you're only awake say 16 hours a day, so that equates to over 9 days - almost 2 weeks of leave - of being awake where you're just sitting in traffic.

I think much more should be made of just how much life is wasted from just sitting in cars. Calculating how many days per year I was losing either sitting in the car, or standing on the train, was the single biggest reason for me starting cycling to work.

That's a pretty depressing report.

Not at all hard to believe though - I find cycling across Bristol takes easily 2/3 the time of driving. Even on the A roads heading out the city, I find I'm constantly playing leapfrog with cars when commuting home by bike.

Almost scary.