If companies realize the time their employees totally waste, they would opt for varying work hours and work shifts. Let's look at a common urban area commuter, he wastes an extra hour in the morning rush hour and an extra hour in the evening rush hour, so 2 hours total daily. In a month that amounts to 40 hours of non-productive aggression building. Now if you multiply that by the number of skilled people on the road doing nothing, you can idea of the problem.
If companies allow instead of a 8-5 work shift to one perhaps 10-7 for employees that do not have to report right at 8, the workers are shifted out of the traffic jam time frame (It can possibly work 7-4 as well). Night shifts are also a solution in unmanageable situations for which the time variance situation mentioned above is not suitable. But a consortium of the companies in the Congested area to which these employees report to should come together to for the best time solution.