Why is traffic bad on all mornings, except Friday mornings??

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Why is traffic bad on all mornings, except Friday mornings??

Meltdown16

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#147176 11-Jun-2014 12:29

I live on the North Shore now, and for the life of me cannot figure out why on Friday mornings, there is hardly any traffic, yet on every other day of the week, the traffic is really bad.

I mean people work 5 days a week right, kids go to school 5 days a week right?

So what the heck is up with Friday mornings having no traffic??

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.. just trying to understand this anomaly...

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446 posts

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#1063312 11-Jun-2014 12:32

Many office type jobs allow a late start on Friday, my guess is the little difference in travellers is enough to un-bork the traffic.

May also be a higher number of people using public transport so that they can go out DRI king after work?

People are probably more likely to take a Friday or Monday off to do something so that it becomes a long weekend?

freitasm

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#1063314 11-Jun-2014 12:34

Probably same reason why buses are not as full on Friday 5pm in Wellington - I assume a lot of people just stay in town for drinks, movies, late night out, instead of catching the public transport home as soon as the working day is finished. Also some people might not have worked that day.

Demeter

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#1063319 11-Jun-2014 12:38

I imagine the Southern Motorway between Greenlane and Bombay Hill (which is where I turn off) onwards is especially busy on Friday afternoons for the same reason that it is quiet first thing on a Friday - more people tend to take time off or pull a sickie to go away for the weekend?

nzkc

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#1063320 11-Jun-2014 12:38

freitasm: Probably same reason why buses are not as full on Friday 5pm in Wellington - I assume a lot of people just stay in town for drinks, movies, late night out, instead of catching the public transport home as soon as the working day is finished. Also some people might not have worked that day.

No definitely not. Traffic on a Friday evening is horrendous from 4pm in Auckland. However; Friday morning (and Thursday morning as it happens) is very light from the North Shore into town.

My theory is that people take the Friday off for long weekends. Or possibly "pull a sicky" (may actually have given up fighting the cold/flu etc) late in the week.

siyuan

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#1063335 11-Jun-2014 12:57

And the traffic is bad on all afternoons except Monday afternoons.

MikeB4

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#1063364 11-Jun-2014 13:52

When I worked in the city (Wellington) I found that teh worst day for traffic was Tuesday, don't why just was. Yes Friday was easier.

wasabi2k

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#1063371 11-Jun-2014 14:01

I have found that traffic is always really bad when I am running late, and good when I am already on time.

though the north western is bananas - sometimes awful, sometimes great, generally bad.

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garvani

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#1063373 11-Jun-2014 14:02

Ahhh bad traffic. The joys of living in a smaller town! Bad traffic here in Blenheim consists of having to wait more than 2 minutes at the main roundabout at 5pm. 5 minute commute to work for the win :D (2.1km)

jarledb

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#1063432 11-Jun-2014 15:30

garvani: Ahhh bad traffic. The joys of living in a smaller town! Bad traffic here in Blenheim consists of having to wait more than 2 minutes at the main roundabout at 5pm. 5 minute commute to work for the win :D (2.1km)

This, very much this.

Now I work from home so does not really matter, but its nice to be able to go into town and do errands without having to think about rush hour. Here in Napier rush hour consists or 4 or 5 cars after each other, and usually because one of the trains are blocking the road for a little while. :D

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jarledb

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#1063435 11-Jun-2014 15:32

Meltdown16: So what the heck is up with Friday mornings having no traffic??

One reason I don't think anyone has mentioned is people remote working from home. I know a few people that are allowed that, and friday seems to be a good day to do it on.

dclegg

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#1063439 11-Jun-2014 15:36

Bad traffic for me consists of having to boot the cat out of the way as I traverse the steps up to my office. This doesn't seem to be dependant on any particular day, but perhaps I should start recording occurrences to see if there is any correlation to the traffic usage patterns the OP is reporting.

And in the name of science, perhaps I should get more cats so I can increase the sample size. I wonder how my wife will feel if she returns from work tomorrow to find an additional 10,000 cats calling our place home.

trig42

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#1063444 11-Jun-2014 15:39

jarledb:
garvani: Ahhh bad traffic. The joys of living in a smaller town! Bad traffic here in Blenheim consists of having to wait more than 2 minutes at the main roundabout at 5pm. 5 minute commute to work for the win :D (2.1km)

This, very much this.

Now I work from home so does not really matter, but its nice to be able to go into town and do errands without having to think about rush hour. Here in Napier rush hour consists or 4 or 5 cars after each other, and usually because one of the trains are blocking the road for a little while. :D

What annoyed me about Napier were:
1 - Lights never stayed green for long enough - if you were approaching a green light, you could guarantee that it would change before you got there (so basically, you stop at every set of lights).
2 - Driving between Napier and Clive (along Marine Parade, through Awatoto) - this must be where people learn the 'Drive at 70k till you hit a passing lane then do 120k' trick that plagues the rest of NZ.

But yeah, no real rush hour, which was nice.

wasabi2k

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#1063477 11-Jun-2014 16:08

garvani: Ahhh bad traffic. The joys of living in a smaller town! Bad traffic here in Blenheim consists of having to wait more than 2 minutes at the main roundabout at 5pm. 5 minute commute to work for the win :D (2.1km)

I had that discussion with my wife, but wasn't keen on the 66% paycut to live outside a main centre.

ben28

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#1063532 11-Jun-2014 17:31

Dont underestimate the number of Tertiary students/lecturers that organise their timetable to have a light Friday. Auckland traffic is worst in March when all the students are super keen on their course. It slowly gets better as they lose interest and cant afford their petrol or car parking so share rides or take public transport

DravidDavid

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#1063796 12-Jun-2014 08:23

I also found that when it was raining, there were less people on public transport and far more people on the road. Nobody wants to get wet!

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