There’s No Such Thing As “Rush Hour” Now It’s “All Day” Traffic
Remember the “good old days’ when you could depend on knowing when the heavy traffic hours were? Ok, if you were in traffic, you wouldn’t think it was so great,…
Remember the "good old days' when you could depend on knowing when the heavy traffic hours were? Ok, if you were in traffic, you wouldn't think it was so great, but at least you knew what to expect. That was generally between the hours Morning Rush of 6am-9am and the Afternoon Rush between 4pm and 6Pm, of course that could longer depending on the day.
If traffic seems lighter during the old "rush hours" you are not wrong.
This could be good news or bad news depending on when you head off to work . . .
A study found rush hour is evolving. There aren't as many cars on the road pre-9:00 A.M. anymore, because traffic is getting more spaced out. But in a lot of cities, that means there's a mini rush hour ALL DAY LONG now.
The report found the "midday rush hour" is worse than ever. There are almost as many cars on the road at noon as there are at 9:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. It's been the general trend since covid hit and flexible hybrid schedules became a thing.
You'd think spreading it out might mean there'd NEVER be a rush hour. But another report found public transportation never fully rebounded after the pandemic. So there are just more cars on the road.
The traffic analyst behind the report said there's "less of a morning commute, less of an evening commute, and much more afternoon activity" now. And maybe get used to it. He called it the "new normal."
So, what is causing these new "all day traffic" rush hours? For most of us, for better or worse the working world was forever changed during and after the COVID pandemic. If you recall those days, you remember that there was hardly any traffic any time of day and getting to and from work was a relative breeze. This was of course because of the huge numbers of people that were either not working or working from home. Not to mention that schools were closed and moved online.
It's not just people are working from home, it's also the new "flex hours' policies that some companies have adopted. It's no longer the norm to work 9-5 (sorry Dolly Parton) now the workday could be even shorter or not confined to just those hours. This also adds to the "all day traffic" situation.
It seems that ever since those days the working world has never gotten back to the pre-COVID norms. For a lot of us, that is okay because working from home has it's benefits, like not being stuck in "all day traffic".
(CNBC)
Worst Cities for Driving: Boston Makes the Top 10
It's a new year, and here we have a new, dubious list that Boston has landed on: the worst cities for driving in America.
So what else is new, right? Last year, we learned about how dangerous driving in Massachusetts can be. We also took a hard look at road rage in Boston. It was bad, but not the worst. Which would be a funny slogan for the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism to adopt: "Visit Boston: Our Road Rage is Bad, But It's Not The Worst!" VisitMA, I'm available to consult. Call me.
This new bit of data about the dangers of driving in the Commonwealth comes courtesy of Circuit. It's called The Worst Cities for Driving in America and, as I've already mentioned, Boston not only lands on the list, but it lands in the Top 10. "Well, how bad can it be, though? How many cities are in the study," you might ask. Bad, I would answer. As there are 80 cities in the study.
Worst Cities for Driving: Boston Makes the Top 10
The methodology for this one is pretty robust, too. Circuit collected data from a variety of sources, and used the following five variables to determine their rankings: time spent in rush hour per year, time spent in traffic congestion per year, money spent on fuel due to congestion per year, last mile speed (all from 2022), and fatal car accidents (from 2021).
You can dig into their full report here, which also includes per-category breakdowns and lots of interesting info on how driving in these cities impacts delivery drivers. Keep on scrolling to find out where Boston landed and--more importantly--which cities outranked us. That way we'll have someone else to make fun of to distract from the fact that we're as bad as we are.
10) Dallas
Final Score: 52.11
Dallas was dinged for their number of fatal crashes; they placed 6th in that category.
9) Honolulu
Final Score: 57.60
The island paradise got penalized for what you'd expect: No. 1 for worst fuel prices. Take the Skyline instead.
8) San Francisco
Final Score: 59.57
The City by the Bay landed in the Top 10 of every category except fatal crashes. So they've got that going for them.
7) Philadelphia
Final Score: 59.76
Philadelphia is No. 1!...for last mile speed rank. More like Fail-adelphia. At least their plows are cool!
6) Houston
Final Score: 60.95
Dallas was all "hey, we're sixt for fatal crashes" and Houston is like "hold our beer, we're first!" Take the bus.
5) Washington, D.C.
Final Score: 67.11
Second place for time in rush hour traffic. The Beltway is hell, they say.
4) Boston
Final Score: 67.98
Boston finished in the Top 5 of every category except fatal crashes, where we were 57th. Small victories!
3) Los Angeles
Final Score: 70.57
Again, small victories. At least Boston didn't place worse than one of the worst places to drive in the universe.
2) Chicago
Final Score: 79.46
Top 5 finishers in every category. I'm actually surprised Chicago didn't finish first. Actually, I'm not. Because...
1) New York
Final Score: 89.68
...of COURSE New York City finished first. You'd have to be mad to want to drive there.
