Commuters post-Covid - which are the busiest days?

[braddo]

With flexible working being the new norm for many people after Covid, how has this changed traffic levels on your commute and on different days of the week?

It would be interesting to hear how things may have changed on motorways and towns etc as well as the cities.

For example, if you had a long motorway drive to do on a weekday (let's be PH and say it's to go and collect a new car with a mate driving you there), maybe Friday afternoon isn't the pain it used to be and Wednesdays are the new peak day to avoid?

I live in London and commute into central London (by bicycle). Wednesdays are consistently the busiest day for gridlocked roads on peak hours. Tuesdays are often the same, maybe Thursday too or a touch quieter. Mondays are a lot quieter and Fridays are dead - the morning especially is like an early Saturday morning.

[RicksAlfas]

At work we regularly comment on how much busier the roads are now. The volume of traffic seems to have gone up enormously over the last 12 months. Only exception is Friday which is very quiet. This is Bradford/Leeds commutes.

[Tribal Chestnut]

Generally commute into Mayfair or a Bayswater 2-4 days per week. Seems busier than ever. I don’t think the recent strikes have helped - folk seemed to have been forced into driving and I fear have stuck with it.

[Joelonghair]

I don't have to commute anymore, thank god, but do a decent motorway trip most weeks. I've always tried to avoid Mondays and Fridays as I assumed they would be the worst - am I doing it arse about face?!

[CalisenQX]

Joelonghair said:

I don't have to commute anymore, thank god, but do a decent motorway trip most weeks. I've always tried to avoid Mondays and Fridays as I assumed they would be the worst - am I doing it arse about face?!

Put simply, yes I think you might be.
Loads of people choose to WFH on Mondays/Fridays and go into the office Tuesday-Thursday. Personally I try and go into the office on Mondays and Fridays, but that’s because I’m a miserable sod and don’t like people, so the fewer in the office, the better.

[CalisenQX]

The exception of course is bank holiday weekends and half term/kids holidays. Then it’s pandemonium everywhere.

[CalisenQX]

Joelonghair said:

I don't have to commute anymore, thank god, but do a decent motorway trip most weeks. I've always tried to avoid Mondays and Fridays as I assumed they would be the worst - am I doing it arse about face?!

Put simply, yes I think you might be.
Loads of people choose to WFH on Mondays/Fridays and go into the office Tuesday-Thursday. Personally I try and go into the office on Mondays and Fridays, but that’s because I’m a miserable sod and don’t like people, so the fewer in the office, the better.

[georgeyboy12345]

As a general rule, I find in this order


Most busy

Wednesday
Tuesday
Thursday
Friday*
Monday
Saturday
Sunday

Least busy

• Friday is a special case - in the morning it's very quiet. From afternoon until 8 pm it's very busy. Forget about travelling long distance on the motorway between cities on a Friday, it's always very busy and people tend to drive like idiots. Best time to drive long distance is on a Sunday afternoon

[Crusoe]

Around Edinburgh it seems like a Tuesday and Wednesday are the worst for traffic. Cuts my commute by over 20min if I'm in on the other days.

[livinginasia]

In the City of London the busiest days seem to be the tts:

Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday.

Mondays and Fridays seem quieter.

[braddo]

georgeyboy12345 said:

Best time to drive long distance is on a Sunday afternoon

Interesting, whereabouts do you find that? Within say 50 miles of London I'd that definitely isn't the case with lots of people returning to and from London.

Otherwise I think your order of days is similar in my neck of the woods. Afternoons on Sat/Sun are pretty busy though, they might even be busier than Friday!

Edited by braddo on Thursday 2nd March 23:14

[Teddy Lop]

F20CN16 said:

What I really, really don’t get is the people commuting between 6:30-7:00 (like me) that drive so fking slowly and just generally dither. I don’t mean door-handling the car around corners and maximum acceleration. I just mean mild progress. As in, they are driving 2/3 of the speed limit and stopping at roundabouts when it’s clear to go, to name but two things. I can’t make sense of these people that have got themselves up and in the car that early in the day, but they don’t want to just fking get on and get it over with. I would love to speak to some of them to see why they are so st at simple tasks.

Totally this^. Why would you be out of bed unless you had somewhere to be.

TBF my experiences in London these days are it's completely random. I don't have a regular every-single-day commute but I do tend to do the same few routes for the most part, and the same old route can vary between 40 and 70 mins with no detectable pattern whatsoever. I've gone from being borderline obsessive about punctuality with client appointments to borderline indifferent. London is completely fked and the post-reality fkwits in charge making it even worse with their mayhem creating "low traffic neighbourhoods" and other such dim witted schemes I'm literally just giving up. Will be moving soon. Good luck getting tradesmen etc in your no vehicles utopia!

[ashleyman]

Thursday nights is the new Friday night in terms or leaving the city and going home for the weekend. Chaos everywhere.

Monday is pretty quiet if you’re out before 7.30.

I’m going into the office on a Tuesday as that’s when everyone else is in. Otherwise I’m at home.

[donkmeister]

F20CN16 said:

What I really, really don’t get is the people commuting between 6:30-7:00 (like me) that drive so fking slowly and just generally dither. I don’t mean door-handling the car around corners and maximum acceleration. I just mean mild progress. As in, they are driving 2/3 of the speed limit and stopping at roundabouts when it’s clear to go, to name but two things. I can’t make sense of these people that have got themselves up and in the car that early in the day, but they don’t want to just fking get on and get it over with. I would love to speak to some of them to see why they are so st at simple tasks.

I have to make infrequent long trips that have me out by 6am. My theory is that they are fighting sleep. I would struggle to hit the road at 6am every day without making serious changes to the rest of my day to be in bed early. But some people are burning the candle at both ends.

[aturnick54]

I think roads have got worse, but not necessarily because of traffic volume. Far more time stuck in traffic. I suspect it's more people who can't drive properly cutting someone off causing snake effects until people come to a stop.

I have noticed a massive drop in driving standards, and consideration for others since the pandemic.

[Teddy Lop]

aturnick54 said:

I think roads have got worse, but not necessarily because of traffic volume. Far more time stuck in traffic. I suspect it's more people who can't drive properly cutting someone off causing snake effects until people come to a stop.

I have noticed a massive drop in driving standards, and consideration for others since the pandemic.

There's been a huge rise in simple bloody minded entitlement in general. But you witness it most of all on the roads where people feel a sheet of steel isolates them, makes them safe from their actions.

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

Teddy Lop said:

aturnick54 said:

I think roads have got worse, but not necessarily because of traffic volume. Far more time stuck in traffic. I suspect it's more people who can't drive properly cutting someone off causing snake effects until people come to a stop.

I have noticed a massive drop in driving standards, and consideration for others since the pandemic.

There's been a huge rise in simple bloody minded entitlement in general. But you witness it most of all on the roads where people feel a sheet of steel isolates them, makes them safe from their actions.

is it possible that wfh/hybrid working means that those people who used to commute by train every day ( at great expense) are now happy to sit in a car 2x per week for 2 hours each way, as it's cheaper, but also less of a bind?

It might also explain the poor driving, as for some it might be the first time they've done any proper driving in years?

[Vasco]

F20CN16 said:

What I really, really don’t get is the people commuting between 6:30-7:00 (like me) that drive so fking slowly and just generally dither. I don’t mean door-handling the car around corners and maximum acceleration. I just mean mild progress. As in, they are driving 2/3 of the speed limit and stopping at roundabouts when it’s clear to go, to name but two things. I can’t make sense of these people that have got themselves up and in the car that early in the day, but they don’t want to just fking get on and get it over with. I would love to speak to some of them to see why they are so st at simple tasks.

Aren't they just enjoying the driving, plus other sights etc?

No real need to rush everywhere, disregarding all about you. Time to chill a bit - there's plenty of crazy drivers to avoid !

[Alex_225]

livinginasia said:

In the City of London the busiest days seem to be the tts:

Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday.

Mondays and Fridays seem quieter.

Same experience for me as well. The firm I've just left have their main office in the City, had to book desks etc. They were actively trying to encourage people into the office on Mondays and Fridays. I used to go in maybe once a week and that was a Tuesday or a Wednesday.

I drove down to Bristol on Tuesday evening, I usually do this on a Friday and the roads were so much quieter but I suspect on Fridays people are off to the West for weekends so Fridays would possibly be busier on the road.

[Vasco]

livinginasia said:

In the City of London the busiest days seem to be the tts:

Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday.

Mondays and Fridays seem quieter.

I gather that this ties in with the data for trains too. Fridays really much quieter and Mondays lower volumes than pre-covid. For them, it's the weekends that have become much busier, with leisure travellers.