In large cities where many ride a long distance to set in front of a computer all day, much of that work could be done from home. When you consider all of the time spent on office gossip, the time and money dressing for work, maintaining a vehicle etc., there's more lost efficiency than just the time spent in traffic.
Zoning could be improved. When all of the commercial buildings are located in the center with a huge circle of housing around it, that increases traffic. If the commercial properties were distributed more evenly through the residential areas, people could live closer to where they work.
Much of the traffic problems are the result of cheap energy that's been available since the development of autos. As that demand increases in the future and the energy supplies are being depleted, there will be a point where traffic will decline and there will be better decisions made on work and travel because of the higher cost..
The ideal solution would be a transporter like they had on Star Trek. "Beam me to work, Scotty." :-)