The research found that the biggest direct cost comes from wasted fuel, with a cost of over £426 million – that’s £52 worth of fuel cost per car commuter for 8.2 million British commuting drivers.

In addition, the average cost of time wasted in gridlock per commuter equates to £331 – equating to a total national time cost of £2.7 billion.

Gridlock costs are at their highest in the Capital, with an impact to car commuters of  £1.6bn. Put into context this means that for every £10 of direct and indirect costs caused by congestion in the UK, approximately £4 occurs in the Capital.

Meanwhile commuting drivers in London spending 66.1 hours stuck in traffic jams annually. In fact the average Londoner travelling to work by car spends nearly two working weeks in traffic:

Bryan Mistele, CEO of INRIX, said: ‘As the UK continues facing times of austerity and high unemployment, the study indicates the efficient movement of people and commerce across our road networks is essential to fostering a healthy, vibrant economy.’