Why is Thursday traffic the worst?

A lot of people take Fridays off for long weekends. And many that do go in on Fridays go in late and/or leave early. In anticipation - and in buildup from the rest of the week - people are especially regimented on Thursdays and hit the road at normal rush hour times, creating a relatively unusual glut of traffic.



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Americans spend nearly 100 hours each year in traffic, which costs billions in dollars for the U.S. for wear on cars and gas money. Specific days of the year come with different traffic issues, including the two days before Christmas, the day before Thanksgiving, and the day before Independence Day.

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A Traffic can jump 2 to 3 percent on Tuesdays from Mondays, when more people are apt to take off work or work at home or whatever .

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What are the quietest days to drive? Commuting is a little quieter on Mondays in many UK cities. Sunday is often the best day to go on a sightseeing trip whilst avoiding traffic – especially if you set off earlier on before many of the shops open and the usual 'Sunday drivers' venture out.

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Travelling in the morning before 10am on the weekend days, or after 7pm, is your best bet of avoiding the jams, according to the RAC. Separate research by the RAC suggests that July and August will see 26% of the total driving population using their cars to go on holiday in the UK.

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And our roads are getting worse every year. According to Inrix, drivers spend more time stuck on gridlocked streets in London than in any other city on the planet. In 2022, our road hogs lost a whopping 156 hours each to congestion. (Up from 148 hours in 2021, and 5 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels.)

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A number of people commute to places in the week and so need to commute back home on Fridays. Additionally, people will resist working late on Friday and these factors lead to traffic peaks in the evening rush hour. Monday mornings tend to be bad too.

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Traffic tends to be worse on Fridays for several reasons: Commuters leaving early for the weekend: Many people choose to leave work early on Fridays to start their weekend activities. This creates more traffic on the roads during peak hours.

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There is a lot less traffic on the road at night than during the day, which means you can usually get through cities faster and with less stress.

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Rush Hour. Evening rush hour (between 4 and 7 p.m. weekdays) is a dangerous time to drive due to crowded roadways and drivers eager to get home after work. In winter, it's dark during rush hour, compounding an already dangerous driving situation.

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There is a lot less traffic on the road at night than during the day, which means you can usually get through cities faster and with less stress.

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The Safest Times to Drive As far as times, heavy traffic usually picks up in the U.S. between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays due to work. It's a good idea to arrive at work around 8:30 a.m. and leave at 4:30 p.m. to avoid not only the traffic but potential danger.

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The M45 is a motorway in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, England and is 7.9 miles (12.7 km) long. It runs between junction 17 of the M1 motorway south east of Rugby and a junction with the A45 road southwest of Rugby. It has one of the lowest traffic volumes of the United Kingdom motorway system.

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Low traffic zones At the other end of the scale, we see Middlesbrough, Preston and Stoke-on-Trent as the three least traffic-ridden of the UK's larger cities. The UK's least congested big cities (with additional travel time as a percentage of expected travel time) are: Reading – 24% Portsmouth – 24%

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