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Commuters in San Francisco lost on average 116 hours — almost five full days — to traffic congestion last year, according to the research firm Inrix. In Los Angeles it was 128 hours. On some days, of course, a single commute can feel like five days.

Blade, a start-up based in New York, saw the commuting nightmare as a business opportunity. Earlier this year the company started daily helicopter flights across the Bay. For $195 you can hop from Oakland to Palo Alto.

While the idea of spending that much on an eight-minute flight will be absurd to many people, it says something about traffic congestion in and around San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Oakland to Palo Alto is the company’s most popular route in the Bay Area, according to Will Heyburn, the head of corporate development at Blade. At around 15 miles, it’s also the shortest of the company’s regular routes in the United States.