[jekrb]

For me it was less the commute time and more planning around traffic.

Even if the commute was 30 minutes (a good day), I'd usually need to buffer time to plan for being late due to traffic accidents and construction (frequent).

Switching to remote work gave me back at least an hour every morning, and at least 1.5 hours in the evening. Anecdotally this has led to massive performance and quality of life increases.

[ElFitz]

Exactly. It may take only 25 minutes.

But how many of the people making up this average leave home an hour earlier than most of us just to beat traffic?

How much buffer time is then also factored in, and wasted?

No even taking into account the cognitive and emotional cost of the commute.

i.e. the subway in Paris is full of stressed out people, stinks, is more or less reliable and makes an awful lot of stressful loud noises.

I’ve switched to cycling 2 years ago, and even when I get home drenched by the rain and frozen by the wind do I still not miss the "métro". At all.

And I’d bet driving can be quite stressful too.