Submitted by jamesland7 t3_yfnqk8 in boston
Everywhere i drove around 8:45 this morning had virtually no trafffic. No traffic at the JFK/uMass roundabout. No traffic entering the 93 tunnel, no traffic getting on Storrow. Is this just how things should be when everything works right, or is something happening causing people not to drive today?
I’ve been commuting to Boston for the past 20 years and Friday mornings have always had lighter traffic.
And now it's even lighter because people are WFH
Yes, this for sure -- but somehow leaving the city on Friday afternoon/evening can occasionally be as bad or worse than other weekdays. Bizarre.
Same with Sunday evening. It's weird.
Car wrecks --- they peak Friday afternoons.
https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/overview/crashes-by-time-of-day-and-day-of-week/
My theory is that people get so focused / obsessed about what their weekend plans--- that they make more mistakes. Also distractions by texting people during commute for social / evening plans.
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Seems like working on friday is a better idea if everyone else is WFH. Stay home on a different day with shit traffic.
The annoying thing is Friday night traffic isn't substantially better than other evenings. That's the real baffling part.
And honestly it seems like it starts going to shit by lunch.
93 and Pike at least start getting “evening” traffic so early.
Is everyone trying to get to Maine or the Cape at the same time or some fucking thing? Early lunches in town? Friday errand day for fucking everyone?
All the rich gotta get to their cape Beach homes early on the weekend.
This. It’s more noticeable since so many companies called people back in full time as of September, but a lot made the deal for Friday WFH or off.
As the other commenter said, Friday is WFH day for hybrid folks who only get one or two WFH days a week.
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Reducing the number of cars by as little as 10% has gigantic impact on traffic (just as increasing by 10% can be crippling).
especially when you never fix bottlenecks or balance the supply/demand side.
https://www.lamag.com/driver/science-reveals-courtesy-can-cause-traffic/
Of course roadway courtesy has never been a feature of Boston-area drivers.
Yeah, of all the things I'd blame our traffic on, excessive courtesy would not be one of them. I think we can discount that as a problem.
As long as everyone drives like an asshole we can all safely drive like assholes.
Monday also.
Basically, don't drive to work Tuesday-Thursday. Take the T.
I mean, shit, if you can reasonably take public transport to your job then why drive in the first place
Same reason everyone does, they don't want to have to rely on someone else for their trip home.
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Need to run out the door to make a specific commuter train, and if it's cancelled, might be hours of waiting or shuttle buses. Sure, doesn't happen that often...but everyone would rather be in their own car, with their own sense of control over the situation.
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It doesn't help that we spent the past 2.5 years beating people over the head with COVID and social distancing. Huge numbers of people are still never going to get into a crowded elevator ever again, let alone a subway train. Shit, I see people wearing masks walking down the street, outside, alone. Of course people would rather drive.
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And that doesn't even get into the high profile media reports of random nutcases attacking people on public transit. Everyone's on edge.
Please keep using these lines of logic. Means more space on transit for all the rest of us.
I mean the T is pretty crappy. But traffic is way worse imo.
Friday has been the lightest traffic day lately. A lot people work from home on Fridays now.
It's always been the lightest day for a long time. I loved coming into the office on Fridays for that reason, but starting this school year I had to WFH Fridays because of my kids' afterschool program didn't have availability that day.
I think you may be repressing pre-pandemic memories. Friday traffic, especially the evening commute, was always the worst in my experience. Everyone leaving the city for the weekend for the beach or mountains I think was to blame.
Going home Fridays was sometimes bad, but never worse than say a Monday or Tuesday. And Friday mornings were always very light.
I agree, pre-pandemic it always seemed Fridays were worse than every other day, definitely on average.
Pre-pandemic if we were going away for the weekend I'd work from home Friday and would usually try to cut out around 3 pm and it would always be bad. I figure that there were usually a fair number of people like me that ordinarily wouldn't be on the highways heading out of town adding to traffic volume.
Friday after 1pm used to be some of the worst of the week, between people ending the work week early, and people arriving in the city to play.
Tuesday's probably the worst now.
Lightest day in the morning, a nightmare in the afternoon/evening
Maybe in the past, but not nowadays. Thursday seems to be the worst since all the kids went back to school.
As others said, Friday is more of a WFH day for a lot of people but today did seem quieter than usual for a Friday at least on my line on the commuter rail
halloween weekend...everyone is up in salem.
Rather them than me. Salem is a nice enough little town if you’re sat in the beer garden at Notch by the coast there with a few beers but nothing could possess me (see what I did there?) to go any time around Halloween
Yeah, I am in the same boat in that I like Salem for a visit about 9 months out of the year.
Live in Salem….can confirm. Three more days before I can enjoy leaving my house again.
When I came into North Station at 8:30am I noticed a number of people dressed up for Salem, so I think there's something to that.
I want to say it's too early for that shit at 8:30am but it's honestly probably the best time to go. It'll be crazy later.
I'm pretty sure that's what these people had in mind. And they were smart enough to take the train instead of drive.
COD MW22 released today. Probably lots of people “out sick” today.
You... overestimate how many people play COD.
Considering BF2042 was a massive flop and COD is actually getting good now that Microsoft bought them out IDK lots of people online. I wish I took today off but I have an interview this afternoon I can’t miss
Oh you were serious? I thought you were making a joke
That’s interesting, I heard on the radio this morning it was on hour on 93 from 95 to the Zakim. Maybe that was a crash that eventually cleared.
I do this commute and that’s what I experienced this morning! My commute was twice as long as a typical Friday commute. More on par with an average to goodish mid week commute.
Just wait until the afternoon. Friday afternoons and evening are a nightmare.
Yesterday there were the most people I've seen at my commuter rail stop since before COVID, easily 100 waiting at 6am. Today there were 14.
Tuesdays and Fridays seem to be lighter traffic
Tuesday is the worst traffic day for me when I drive to work.
I only go in two days a week, but have been going in either Monday or Friday because the mid week traffic is so bad.
Tuesday and Wednesday. Those are also common meeting days.
Monday and Tuesday seem to swap weekly for which day will be lighter. Friday definitely
I noticed the same thing, thought I would be late when I left today. Was 30 minutes early to work.
I had to stop in to the office today and left at 6. 630 and 93 southbound coming into the city was pretty full, I was surprised at how many cars there were.
It's Friday, people don't wanna commute and WFH on Fridays. Which is why I go to the office. I go in, do my 3 hrs and goto "lunch" head home, and log in from there to finish the day. =)
Everyone is in Salem! BOO!
It’s friday. I had mostly no traffic, right up until Rt 2 at Alewife.
I was wondering about this. I go from Brookline to Brockton and the drive today was smooth sailing.
In addition to what's been said I know that my school district had a late start day today, possible some others did as well, which would take the school drop offs buses etc. out of the pre 9-AM commuting equation.
JFK/ umass rotary?
Good call
Friday
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Woburn to Sullivan Square normally takes me 20-25 minutes on a Friday. Today it took me just over 40 minutes leaving at 8:40am. I was specifically surprised that there was way more traffic today that a typical Friday.
Everyone is at home having a late breakfast and getting ready to enjoy the crisp fall day except you.
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Today I had one of the easiest bus commutes ever… everyone seems to be enjoying the ridiculously nice Fall we’ve been having.
They are all in Salem.
Woah I’ve been experiencing the exact opposite problem. Fridays have been the worst day for traffic. No matter what time the JFK/Umass rotary is backed up and so is the intersection at mass and cass. Always thought Friday is WFH day like everyone is saying but hasn’t been my experience
As a Bostonian who recently moved to LA, this gave me fomo.
Interesting, I felt like traffic was slightly heavier this morning than it normally is on 1S. Usually on Fridays I’m not in stop-and-go on the Tobin, but today I was.
while there is next to no traffic come friday mornings... the traffic is straight up injected with steriods returning upon leaving work
honest its downright baffling, no people on the road in the am but bumper to bumper traffic in the pm
I noticed too
its easily the worst day of the week and not even close.. my commute from newton to beverly can easily top 100 minutes on a friday
this sub hilarious, top 6 comments near verbatim saying the same thing
michael_scarn_21 t1_iu48zkt wrote
People wfh on Fridays now.