I’ve been pretty obsessed with trying to understand traffic patterns in the UK since I moved here back in the day.

Regular congestion caused by the accursed school run aside, I have come to realise the following:

1. Mondays are generally super busy, except when they aren’t. And there is often no explanation for why they aren’t, but the roads will be hauntingly devoid of cars. Pedestrian traffic remains the same.
2. Ditto Tuesdays.
3. Ditto Wednesdays.
4. Ditto Thursdays.
5. Ditto Fridays.

You’d think rain might be a factor, and it sometimes can be, but then I have seen equally stupid-long queues on bright sunny days as well.

So today, I left slightly late for work which, in my experience, normally means that traffic at the nearest junction to me has largely died down. But oh no… Today, with no accidents or anything else to account for it, it was backed up way down the street, and tight enough that I couldn’t even slip through on my bike and position myself at the head of the pack.

Then, the pedestrians were wandering aimlessly all over the shared-use path across the local fields, and by the time I got to the university neighbourhood, air-headed undergraduates were blocking the crossings, making it difficult to get through.

Yesterday, by contrast? Weather conditions and everything else being the same, I sailed through, hardly having to use my brakes.

I remain bewildered.

Friday always quieter, as everyone is shirking working from home.

Yes, good post. I drive 21 miles each way to and from work (sometimes cycle but it’s over a huge hill) and never cease to be amazed at the variations in traffic. School holidays mean I can do it in 35 minutes but winter and schools in, means that can take 90 minutes. Also the traffic is so dense that it only takes the smallest fender-bender to bring everything to a halt.

Mondays and Tuesdays are always the worst because reps set off on sales trips.

As a cyclist the biggest difference is school holidays, roads are just deserted.

I always experienced more traffic on wet days. I reckon there’s a few cyclists choose to drive, a few bus users decide to drive (rather than walk to/stand at bus stops) and traffic just moves a bit slower through junctions etc

As a cyclist the biggest difference is school holidays, roads are just deserted

IME..This^^
Everything else appears to be just random.

I always find it far worse in the rain – I’ve always assumed that this is for the reasons scotroutes suggests.

As a cyclist the biggest difference is school holidays, roads are just deserted.

I find that’s true in the mornings, much less so in the evenings.

You all forgot Friday evenings: Gridlock.

I think when traffic levels exceed a certain threshold they become unstable, so random minor incidents cause big delays.

Happens on motorways a lot. Someone brakes and you get a wave of slow traffic moving backwards along the motorway. Doesn’t happen when the road is quiet as people can just adapt or change lanes to avoid it.

Friday always quieter, as everyone is shirking working from home.

I find this to be the case on Friday morning, and then the whole of the South East takes to it’s cars around 4.30pm to get wherever it is they are going.

You all forgot Friday evenings: Gridlock.

Nah,I moved North,away from gridlock 😉

Nah,I moved North,away from gridlock

You don’t live in Harrogate then do you?

God no.

Also the traffic is so dense that it only takes the smallest fender-bender to bring everything to a halt.

don’t think it has to be a proper incident with everything running at capacity. Someone does something stupid like block a box junction, no one on the cross junction moves for a full cycle of the lights, so when they do get the chance to move people in cross traffic go “screw you” and all pile forward and end up blocking the box junction again, and it snowballs from there.

Little things causing big outcomes, isn’t this part of some chaos theory?

biggest difference is school holidays, roads are just deserted.

Where do you live to notice this?

Down here, I reckon 10 years ago, there was a difference during school holidays.
Not anymore though. Roads are packed all the time.
Even during mid-afternoon – where is everyone going at 10.30/11am?

I drive all over South Wales for work and the only regular pattern is that if the schools are in the rush hour happens between 8-9.30 and 3-6.30 with the middle of the day steady. If the schools are on holiday then the morning rush doesn’t happen but the afternoon rush is quieter but still there. The rest of the day is chaos as all the grandparents and stressed-out parents drive around unpredictably.

One accident somewhere nearby though and the whole system grinds to a halt 🙁

You should all be making your weans walk to school, the difference when they are off is staggering.

I reckon the school run is probably worth about 50% of carbon emissions from motors!

Where do you live to notice this?

bolton<->manchester and my commute times can vary 7-9 and 4-6, definitely noticeable, tho I’m sure it’s not just down to the lack of school runs, people taking time off work to look after the kids/go on holiday, etc.

You should all be making your weans walk to school

just like you should be cycling to work

I have read/heard that this inconsistency is why commuting is so bad for us.

We’re wired to expect the same response if we repeat an action, this is how we learn and survive. If we don’t get the same response we are able to consider and calculate the reasoning.

Commuting is a repetitive action with wildly differing outcomes that we can neither understand nor control, this causes a disproportionate amount of stress in our primitive brains. Commuting is therefore way more stressful than other activities that should, on paper, be more taxing.

Definitely notice a difference in the mornings during school holidays, its so quiet I’m almost tempted to drive in rather than cycle 🙂 Don’t notice a difference in the evenings though.

Fridays through the south side of Glasgow are usually mental, Shawlands is crazy on a friday. No idea why.

I hope my son wasn’t one of the air-headed undergraduates 😀

You should all be making your weans walk to school, the difference when they are off is staggering.

Don’t forget the traffic reduction due to parents being on holiday rather than in work. It’s not all about kids going to school in 4x4s.

Pictonhead: I have read/heard that this inconsistency is why commuting is so bad for us.

We’re wired to expect the same response if we repeat an action, this is how we learn and survive. If we don’t get the same response we are able to consider and calculate the reasoning.

Commuting is a repetitive action with wildly differing outcomes that we can neither understand nor control, this causes a disproportionate amount of stress in our primitive brains. Commuting is therefore way more stressful than other activities that should, on paper, be more taxing.

This explain my completely irrational road rage at times. It only ever consists of swearing loudly, but…just….completely not like me at any other time of the day/event/issue/conflict.

Don’t forget the traffic reduction due to parents being on holiday rather than in work. It’s not all about kids going to school in 4x4s.

Well, it’s 50% of it, of the other 50, 49.9% is the reduction in everyone else not having to sit in traffic behind your 4×4 parked in the middle of the crossing whilst you kick Tarquin and Germima out and scowl at anyone who looks at you funny*. The remaining 0.1% is parents going on holiday, because if that actually made a difference, the non breeding population would leave the roads deserted the other 38 weeks of the year.

*scowls