I'm getting better at the game; today, my longest wait was 20 minutes (needed a full on sprint to catch that one).

That having been said, the traffic itself was horrendous. All told, I spent 4 hours on the road in order to attend 3 meetings that weren't especially far away.

In the past, I've always brushed off people that told me it can take 1.5 hours to get from Guomao to Ditan Park (10 km), but I now concede that such is quite possible (i.e. happened to me).

Bottom line:

-schedule fewer meetings per day
-plan on arriving very early (especially if the meetings are important)
-I am usually quite risk averse with respect to matters like this, but I have finally been burned (and not by a few minutes)
-bring a book
-while taking the subway makes sense in principle, the transfers will ensure that you arrive looking like a hobo

Disclaimer:

-my recent data set is quite limited
-both the rain and the holidays have surely played a major role