TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS (EVERY DAY)

You get up every morning

From your alarm clock's warning

Take the 8:15 into the city

There's a whistle up above

And people pushin', people shovin'

And the girls who try to look pretty

And if your train's on time

You can get to work by nine...

Almost two-thirds of drivers say traffic is getting worse in their areas, and the majority of American drivers do not think the roads where they live were designed to handle the current volume of traffic.

"Driving is such an important part of our daily lives that it can affect our safety, our productivity at work, and even our general outlook on life. As an insurance company, understanding the driving experience helps us understand how to keep drivers - and their vehicles - moving and safe," said Kathleen Bromage, vice president, The Hartford.
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American commuters seem to be adept at finding ways to make use of the time they spend stuck in traffic, with 86 percent of drivers admitting they perform at least one other activity - such as eating, drinking, talking on a cell phone or sending text messages- while driving to or from work.

Eating or drinking (76 percent) and talking on a cell phone (67 percent) are the most common commuting pastimes, with more than 25 percent of commuters reporting they do three or more different things while driving.

Commuters in cities studied with longer-than-average commutes - Phoenix and Charlotte - are most likely to report performing three or more different activities while driving.

All women spring forth from the womb with the ability to apply makeup while driving while simultaneously texting and telling their husband he is wrong.

Okay, I made that part up-it was not from the survey.

Surprisingly, even in today's tight job market, only one in 10 American commuters would be willing to commute as long as necessary to accept a new job they found very interesting.

However, most drivers (77 percent) would at least consider a job offer that involves a commute of more than 30 minutes each way.

Now here's the part that cracked me up.

The daily commute is a major time-waster and source of frustration for many drivers.

The survey reports that the average American commuter spends nearly 26 minutes commuting each way to and from work, including 14 minutes per day lost in traffic delays.

This means that the average commuter loses 56 hours per year because of traffic - the equivalent of seven full working days.

Okay-we're talking fourteen minutes a day here. Not long ago, it took longer than that for the television to turn on and the oven to warm up. We have automated our lives so much that we're worrying about less than a quarter of an hour?
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And yet, if we manage to give the average American back those precious fourteen minutes of ever day, guess what he's going to do with them?

You got it-fourteen more minutes watching reality television shows!