Every morning the early local newscast reports on how good or bad the “daily commute” is going. Strategically perched cameras and computer generated models show whether there is clear sailing or clogged arterials on the major commute-routes. Seattle is a city consistently in the Top 10 for its gelatinous traffic jams – the LA freeway is a breezeway compared to Seattle’s Route 5 most of the time. And the Seattle newscasters like to keep minute-by-minute track of how slow you can go.

Now it takes 20 minutes longer than normal — wait!

No, it just climbed to 22 minutes longer.

Okay, make that 23 minutes, above the average drive-time to go from Point A to Point B.

These days our commuting time can be put to productive work. Your commuting time can be used to practice new language skills, or…