I would argue that not everybody deals with peak hour, stop go traffic, I don't.
If you do deal with peak hour traffic on a daily basis, a typical cheap Hybrid, lets say the Corolla SX sport hybrid is about $2k more than a "normal" SX sport.
For a little economical 125kw 200nm 2.0l that could be a years worth of fuel.
Also, the 1.8l hybrid only has 72kw 142nm, which become blatantly apparent when the car sees a hwy.
I agree that a little hybrid is a handy car for peak hour traffic jams, but it will fall on its face in clear traffic.
Don't believe me, go hire one for a weekend, we got "upgraded" from the basic corolla to a hybrid corolla a while ago, I have hired the normal corolla before, it was a nippy little econo-car, it did the Brisbane to Amberley run brilliantly, the hybrid was a slug.
Albeit my view is based on hiring the cars from Brisbane airport and driving them to Amberley.
Now, if only a full electric car was at a reasonable price and charging was logistically easy, now that "is" a perfect stop start vehicle.
I won't go into how un-enviromentaly friendly full electric cars currently are.