Drivers in and around Montreal are spending more time than ever in traffic, lowering general productivity at a great cost to Quebec.

As many as 76.8 million person hours are wasted in Montreal's traffic gridlock every year, according to figures compiled in a 2003 traffic study from Transport Quebec.

Details of the report were published in Montreal newspaper La Presse on Tuesday.

The traffic study compared congestion rates between 1998 and 2003. Delays caused by traffic on and around the island increased by an average of 38 per cent in that time period.

Gridlock mostly affects highways and major roads in Montreal, where delays during morning and afternoon traffic are up 60 and 70 per cent, respectively.

The worst areas are between Laval and Ste-Julie and Boisbriand, the northern municipalities.

Drivers in those areas are spending between four and seven minutes more in rush hour traffic than prior to 1998.

On Montreal's South Shore, drivers are spending an average two minutes more in traffic.

If the estimated person hours spent in traffic were added up and monetized, it would equal $1.4 billion a year, according to the report.

That figure includes the value of time lost to drivers and passengers stuck in traffic, fuel consumed in gridlock, and costs related to increased greenhouse gas emissions.