The amount of time that workers spend commuting between home and their workplace has rocketed in the past 10 years, with millions of workers now taking at least an hour to get to the office, new research shows.
The results come at the same time as it is claimed that congestion on Scotland's roads is costing the economy £1bn a year through extra fuel and man-hour costs and missed deliveries.
The TUC research found the number of people who travel for more than an hour to get to work has risen by as much as 40% and that around 145,000 people in Scotland are now setting off for work earlier and getting home later than they did 10 years ago.
The M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh, with 55,000 users a day, was recently named the worst road in Britain for congestion, beating major roads in London and Manchester, with delays most likely at junction 16 Cowcaddens and junction 20 on the Kingston Bridge.
But the problem is countrywide: the A720 at Edinburgh is the fifth-worst A-road in Britain, while in Aberdeenshire, the A90 from Muggiemoss to Stonehaven is identified as a congestion blackspot, and Dundee's A90 ring road is also affected.
Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) said the government should consider more direct action such as road-user or congestion charging, and that people should be offered "safe, convenient and affordable alternatives".
The FoES spokesman said: "This means greater investment in public transport, safer streets for cycling and walking, better land-use planning and the introduction of a fair system of road-user or congestion charging."
Professor David Gray, of Robert Gordon University, was reported yesterday as saying that congestion is affecting business to the extent that it costs £1bn a year.
The RAC Foundation said the government should carry out more research into why people use cars to commute and added that innovative measures such as encouraging home working should be used to reduce car usage.
It said congestion must be tackled and that "we cannot ignore this and hope that everyone will take the train".
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber also said employers should explore avenues such as new working structures to help alleviate the problem.
He said: "We work some of the longest hours in Europe, and on top of this have to endure the second-longest daily commute in Europe - on average 54 minutes per day.
"This adds up to a very stressful working week for millions of workers across the UK, and employers could ease this strain for their workers by introducing flexible working.
"Workers who enjoy the benefits of flexible working and can travel to and from work outside of peak rush hour times are likely to feel less hassled and anxious about work - something which can only be good news for their employers.
"I hope all employers who receive flexibility requests consider them seriously and do all they can to make flexible working a reality."
The TUC study coincided with a call by the Work Wise campaign group for firms to allow more flexible and home working to reduce the stress of the daily journey for the UK's 25 million commuters.
Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise, said: "As is seen every summer with schools closing and annual holidays, even a small fall in the number of people travelling alleviates road congestion and public transport overcrowding.
"Wider adoption of smarter commuting will allow the levels of travel in the summer to happen all year round.
"If everyone travelled one day per week outside peak hours, commuters during peak hours would drop by 20%, or if everyone worked just one day every other week from home, overall commuting would drop by 10%.
"We have all seen what the impact could be on the roads and public transport."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article