WASHINGTON — Rushhour in the DMV is never a cake walk for drivers, but Wednesday morning’s commute was particularly difficult, leading to hours-long delays for many drivers all over town.
Unfortunately, traffic data shows that it's not unusual for midweek commutes to be heavier.
Construction and crashes will always affect a commute, but a traffic analyst says no matter what, driving in the middle of the week will be tougher.
"Wednesday is the busiest day for travel," said Bob Pishue, a traffic analyst with INRIX, a transportation analytics company.
Pishue said the crowding on the road Wednesdays is impacted by some people working a hybrid, remote schedule, with most people heading into the office in the middle of the week.
“As those people have come back they may have adopted a more hybrid work schedule that’s in the middle of the week and that’s similar to what we’re seeing in other major metros too," Pishue said. "A lot of traffic Wednesdays, quite a bit on Thursdays, but when you look to Mondays, in the D.C. region we see about 15% fewer trips being made on a Monday than on a Wednesday."
INRIX said a construction or a crash during rushhour in the middle of the week will only make a tough commute even tougher.
“If it happened at 2a.m. on a Thursday, closing a lane, you may not see much of a traffic impact, but do that on rush hour on a Wednesday, and you can see that backup onto multiple freeways, onto city streets all sorts of things," he said. "And then you could have residual collisions happen after that. These things can kind of cascades.”
If you take the Metro, Wednesday will also be your busiest ride, according to WMATA, as they see an average of 395,000 passengers on Wednesdays.
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