Maintaining a remote workforce may be less than ideal for businesses that thrive on employee collaboration, but there's one aspect of working from home that simply can't be beat: The absence of a commute. The more time people spend in their cars, the more tired and stressed out they're likely to be, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "The longer the commute time workers use, the lower satisfaction with work and life they have," write the authors of an NIH study titled The Effect of Commuting Time on Quality of Life. "The long commute also causes health damage, affecting physical health and causing inactivity." Despite the stresses of driving, people seem to be spending more time in their cars on this side of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the real estate aggregator Clever. The company's data writer, Sam M. Huisache, recently looked at U.S. cities nationwide to determine which were the best and worst for commuters. The Clever study takes into account such factors as a driver's average time in traffic, annual fuel costs, average one-way commute to work, public transportation options, insurance costs and vehicle maintenance costs to rank the cities where commuters are likely to be most and least happy. The slideshow above illustrates the best cities in the U.S. for commuting, according to Clever. Here's one more reason to ditch the commute altogether: "Recent statistics reveal that working remotely saves workers an average of two hours per week in commute time, resulting in time that is being repurposed [for] more work, caregiving, and leisure," Huisache writes. See also: |

• The 10 U.S. cities that are nightmares for commuters
• 10 cities with the most expensive driver commutes