If you reside in one of Egypt’s big cities then you’re no stranger to the seemingly never-ending nightmare, traffic, regularly ruining your days. The persistent problem forces us to swallow it as one of the facts of life, and it’s easy to get lost in the myriad of facts and figures related to the problem without actually understanding how it affects our work life as individuals. After all, most of our time in traffic is spent going to work and back. So how is traffic really affecting our work lives and what can we do about it?
A Waste of Time (Hence Money)
Ever wondered how much money you’ve wasted during the continual vehicular entrapment you’re subjected to? Well, the World Bank kind of did. Back in 2010 they studied Cairo’s traffic congestion and their findings were just sad.
As for the time you waste in slow-moving traffic, the study projects that it costs an average of 125 USD a year and will cost 192 USD by the year 2030. An act as noble as leaving your home early so you could beat traffic and arrive on time was estimated to cost you a whopping 78 USD annually. Clearly, using this time for something fruitful could be difficult but this ever-mounting waste of money makes it essential.
The Stress and Strain You’re Under
Of course, traffic congestion is stressful but the effects it bears on your health are adverse and could sabotage your work life (and also your life in general). This stress could result in fatigue, irritability and loss of concentration, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to find yourself under-performing when your commute is hectic.
Several studies have found that the effects could go further if your daily commute is 16 kilometers long or more each way. Your blood sugar rises, your cholesterol levels are higher and so does your tendency towards depression. Another recent study performed on mice has also alarmingly showed that chronic traffic noise stress causes, amongst other things, impairments in learning and memory. The study hasn’t been performed on humans yet, but it is worrying to say the least.
And to top it all off, there is an increased risk of heart attacks due to exposure to air pollutants.
What Can You Do About It?
We all know that using mass transport whenever possible will help a great deal in easing congestion. But the capacity of the mass transport system in Egypt still needs a lot of work and expansion, and if you start using mass transport more often it won’t go a long way in reducing the harmful effects the daily jams impose on you.
You could, however, start thinking more about your workday. Inflexible working hours have been cited by the same aforementioned World Bank study as one of the root causes of traffic congestion. This makes sense because if we all go to work in the same densely populated city from around 9 am to 5 pm, then we should expect the streets to be terribly clogged. So, looking for a job that is not just near your home but also has flexible working hours is a superb idea. If that is impossible, however, you can always aim to push for more flexible working hours with your current job.
What would also significantly help protect your health is the adoption of routines and habits to help you cope with traffic’s daily dose of stress.
Unfortunately, the solution to our traffic quandary will have to come from large-scale, systematic changes to how we conduct things and technological innovations that combat it head on and these changes take a lot of time. How do you think we should tackle traffic congestion?
