Soon what I thought was a minor traffic hold-up became a frightening delay in sweltering, dry harmattan heat.

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In comparison with cities of a similar size in population, drivers in the city of San Jose waste a cumulative of 10 million more annual hours sitting in traffic jams and suffer a 15% higher commute delay per peak-time traveler.

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The serious delay in re-starting the computer would prompt a major investigation within the National Air Traffic Service.

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Meanwhile, traffic has gotten worse, with delay hours growing from 44 hours a year in 1982 to 70 hours in 2007.

FORBES: New Geographer