In last week’s post, we looked at how Dallas, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles are handling traffic congestion by building new roads, implementing adaptive traffic signaling, and improving mass transit. Being stuck in traffic is a huge pain, but is avoiding it really worth these huge costs?

In a word – yes.

Traffic congestion itself is extremely expensive. As cars idle around the nation, we’re wasting an astonishing amount of time, fuel, and money. And the problem is only expected to increase as our population grows, employment increases and fuel prices remain high.

To find out what traffic congestion is costing us right now, check out the infographic below.

Click the infographic to view a larger version.

Costs related to traffic congestion are increasing. In 2011, the costs were over $120 billion. Traffic congestion wastes a massive amount of time, fuel, and money. It wastes 5.5 billion hours of extra time and 2.9 billion gallons of fuel. The cost to the average commuter in 2011 was $818.