Millions of people spend hours of their daily lives commuting to and from work, and the travel time often takes up a significant portion of the day. The next time you're stuck in rush-hour traffic, sipping on your morning coffee and shaking your fist at the guy that just cut you off, mull over these 10 commuting statistics you might not know.

1. The car is the most popular means of transportation for commuters in the U.S., by far. 2009 US Census Bureau data shows that 90 percent of commuters travel by car. 79.5 percent drove alone, and only 10.5 percent shared their car with others. Just 5.2 percent of commuters used public transport.

2. There's no way to avoid it; the fuel cost of commuting is significant. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, only about 12 percent of the energy from gas is actually used to move the car forward. 

3. The average commuter drives 12.1 miles to work. 

4. According to the US Census Bureau, the average time taken to drive to work in the U.S. is 23.8 minutes. When drivers carpooled, that figure rose slightly to 28 minutes.

5. If you assumed that male drivers drive faster than females, think again. The same data shows that male drivers' average commute time is 25.3 minutes, but the females beat them to the office every time with an average time of 22 minutes.

6. Relationship status may play a role in commute time. The married driver gets to work in an average of 24.7 minutes, whereas his or her single counterpart did it in 21.9 minutes. Curiously, widowed drivers complete the journey by around 1.9 minutes less than their divorced colleagues (US Census Bureau).

7. The more you earn, the longer it takes you to drive to work, apparently. Drivers that earn less than $10,000 a year get to work in 21.2 seconds. Those that earned more than $200,000 did the journey in nearly 26 minutes (US Census Bureau).

8. There are no surprises when it comes to the time of day. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that 28.1 percent of commuters leave between 7:00 a.m. and 7:59 a.m. It's worth remembering that the 'commute' takes place throughout the day, however. 6.8 percent of commuters leave home between 4:00 p.m. and 11:59 p.m.

9. With all that time spent stuck in traffic, road rage, or 'intermittent explosive disorder,' is a very real and dangerous problem for commuters. A survey in 2003 found that 5 to 7 percent of the sample suffered from the condition. Applied to the population overall, that means that 16 million people could be affected.

10. Commuting could be posing a major health risk. Different studies suggest that commuting can make drivers feel lonely, stressed and unhappy. A study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles found a direct link between obesity and the number of miles traveled by car.