Is it?

Because the traffic in the suburbs is usually nowhere near the level of traffic in the city. The commute time tends to be relative to the traffic density more than the distance.

I drive to the same location, 15 miles away every day. Depending on the time of day and the traffic, the drive will take 15 minutes or 45 minutes.

The commute problem is forcing all of those cars down those same roads at the same time. Locating offices outside of the middle of cities would largely correct the problem.

The Atlanta suburb is Alpharetta has a night-time population of about 60k people and a day-time population over 120k. Traffic during the day is bad and those office parks aren't exactly close together.

Another example with even worse traffic (but you can usually walk a little bit for lunch time) is Sandy Springs + Dunwoody.

FYI these two job centers are, easily, a 30 minutes drive from each other.

These are scattered all around the city so choosing to live in a suburbs really limits your working options if you need to get to an opposite-side suburb. (60 - 90 minutes one-way would be normal to get from Alpharetta to Marietta with any traffic)

It's bad because some commuters will have to cross the city center to get to the suburban park, and there's no feasibly way to provide commuter oriented public transit.

Compare that to the offices in downtown Chicago for example, where a large percentage of the workers arrive at work via Metra (medium distance commuter trains) and el (inner city public transit).

Lived and worked in the suburbs of Atlanta, can confirm that suburb traffic going cross town of same suburb (Alpharetta) for 5 miles could take similar time as commuting from the same location to Buckhead.

Similarly, going crosstown in Atlanta without highways is also bad.

lol I was going to reply with the Mansell -> Windward Pkwy drive as well :)

Even if you are in the suburb it is bad. They office park has no houses within walking distance. Sure technically you are in the same small city, but you may as well be 30 miles apart - either way you will drive to work. (it is possible to bike to work, but you are doing it for exercise or because you are some sort of "new age hippie" - it isn't practical)

I wouldn't want to live in that kind of area, no matter how much I enjoy working in it; the land is far too valuable as office parks.

Why are people willing to spend out their butts for just the right housing, when all they really need is a half-decent car?*

*and perhaps a two-thirds-decent library of hair-raising music or enlightening podcasts