Here's how we Australians are literally wasting our lives in traffic

Our capital cities are becoming ridiculously congested. It’s taking its toll – in both literal and metaphoric terms.

If you spend one hour commuting – each way – to work and back (and plenty of people do) you’re not driving any more; you’re wasting about 480 hours a year in traffic.

At the end of a year, you will have spent the same amount of time simply commuting to and from work as most people spend awake in one month.

In other words, commuting to and from work is taking many parents out of play as far as their families are concerned for one month every year, in total. An alternative way to process this information is that if you are lucky enough to take four weeks’ annual leave every year – four weeks doing nothing, soaking up rays at the beach, whatever – this is exactly the same period of time that you will spend commuting for the rest of the year.

The number of motor vehicles on Australian roads has increased