All those people, or more accurately the companies that employ them, choose to have the same operating hours, the same inflexible time policies, and the same in

All those people, or more accurately the companies that employ them, choose to have the same operating hours, the same inflexible time policies, and the same insistence on going to a physical location to do work. Some of them won't have a choice of course - you can't really stack shelves or manufacture bits of metal remotely. For many of the rest travelling, commuting, and working in an office is a choice. It is not a need. The fact rush hour traffic exist shows that businesses are inflexible and unwilling to trust their workers; it doesn't show a daily commute is a requirement.