Vehicles inch along in traffic congestion on Sunday at the Chaoyangmen section of the Second Ring Road in Beijing. [File photo]

Traffic congestion is costing 15 major Chinese cities nearly 1 billion yuan (US$150 million) every day, and the problem is worsening with surging car sales and a flawed mass transit system, a central government official said.

Commuters in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou spend a total of 480 million hours more than Europeans on their way to work, bringing the average road speed down to 12 kilometers per hour, same as decades ago when most Chinese rode bicycles to work, said Niu Wenyuan, a state counselor, referring to a new report by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

As two thirds of Chinese cities suffer rush-hour congestion, the time wasted can translate into huge losses, considering a city like Shanghai makes approximately 200 million yuan of wealth per hour, Niu added.