Do you feel like rush hour is earlier now than it used to be, pre-pandemic?
Asked by
jca2 (
16268
)
September 13th, 2021
In the area I used to work in (city and suburbs not far from NYC), rush hour used to start around 4. Where I live, about an hour north of that, rush hour traffic wouldn’t be until around 6. If you got up here before 6, you’d experience traffic but not really heavy traffic.
School bus traffic and parents picking up kids always started around 2 but nothing heavy on the highways until late afternoon.
However, spring of 2021, when more people started returning to work, I noticed there would be heavy traffic on the local roads and the highways starting around 3. I am wondering if it’s because since more people have returned to the office, they are not working a full traditional 8 hour work day, and instead leaving the office sometime in the afternoon.
Where I live, if I’m going to get on the highway to go shopping in CT, which is a ten minute ride to the CT border from my house, traffic starts getting heavy around 3. If I’m not on the highway by that time, I risk getting stuck in a major jam.
Is it like that where you live and work?
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8 Answers
I work kitchen at a gas station, rush for us is 4–6 typically on weekdays. Dinner time and people coming home from work.
5 o’clock rush hasn’t changed much where I live, yeah traffic was less when state was shut down, but not anymore. (our state is open)
I have seen the same scenario in the Boston area. Pre-Pandemic I traveled everyday from NH seacoast (5 miles shy of Maine) to Boston (Financial District) via car and train. About once a week I would drive all the way in when I had an afterwork commitment.
Pre-Pandemic was about the same as for you. 1 hour car ride if I started before 5am. 2 hours if I started 6am, 2.5–3 hours if I started after 7am. If I got there prior to 6am, there was traffic but not heavy and I had a few options.
If I took the train, I had no issues as my train took me from Newburyport MA to North Station.
Now it seems to be about 30 minutes earlier for the traffic build. The trains are lighter volume of passengers.
I made arraignment to be totally Remote. My commute is 30 seconds now unless the dog jack-knifed in the hallway.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, rush hour begins at the same time as in 2019 (2;30 p.m.) but it is over earlier, Now you can get home pretty quickly starting at 5:30.
Fewer people riding on mass transit, buses, trains and car pools ?
@Tropical_Willie Mass Transit Ridership is down 20–40% in the Boston area depending on the community you live in and where you are going. It’s a little bit of a catch-22 as they change schedules in an attempt to make economic sense.
Yup @Forever_Free, my city sold most of their buses for normal routes and went to an on-demand using Chrysler Pacifica. They have a fleet of minivans but they are leased.
Ridership is up over 60% for number of passengers carried. It is point-to-point also so they come to your house or wherever you are like a store or Doctor’s office. They have an app for smartphones to order rides like Uber.
I haven’t noticed much change in the Austin area. But traffic in that area has always been a cluster fuk.
To answer the question, I have to be able to go outside first. I can’t right now :)
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