Men’s Health Takes our Temperature on Traffic Jams

Gas prices are edging up again so who wants to burn off that precious petrol waiting in a traffic jam? In fact a lack of traffic jams is one of the recruiting points for the good life in the Yakima valley.

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According to a recent Urban Mobility Report, we spend 4.2 billion hours sitting in traffic each year, burning through the equivalent of 370,000 tanker trucks of fuel. Men's Health magazine polled its male readers to get the answers to these questions:

47% of men said traffic is a major stressor in their life.
34% of men spend 30 to 60 minutes a day commuting.
26% of men spend more than 1 and a half hours a day commuting.
13% of men spend 1 to 1 and a half hours a day commuting.
84% said they do not carpool to work.
71% said commuting with their significant other would not improve their relationship.
78% say they would support legislation that encouraged employers to vary work schedules like weekend workdays and 4 day work weeks, to ease congestion.
56% of men do not think road construction projects designed to improve traffic flow ever work.
68% of men said they think "line cutters" are thoughtless, selfish jerks.
52% said distracted drivers pose the greatest threat on the road.
25% said divers under the influence pose the greatest threat on the road.
65% said they have never been a victim of road rage.
56% of men said they'd been in one or two traffic accidents.
22% of men said they'd been in no traffic accidents.
22% of men said they'd been in more than three traffic accidents.
60% of men said if they could triple their salary but would have to commute three times as far, they would do it.
71% of men said they rarely use public transportation.
41% of men said if gas prices doubled permanently tomorrow, they'd deal with it.
41% of men said if gas prices doubled permanently tomorrow, they'd drive less.
86% of men said they would prefer to travel by high speed rail if the prices were reasonable.