Longmont to Cherry Creek (Denver, Broomfield: house, school, live)

[chilaili]

I know this has been covered in another post somewhat, but my question is a bit different. I'm curious to know what is the worst time of day to do this commute? Ie; 7-8am? 8-9am? 4-5pm? 5-6pm? Any information much appreciated.

[sunsprit]

"rush hour" seems to be from around a little after 6AM to almost 9AM, then 3PM to 5:30PM. Give or take a little bit for the time of the year and low sun angles in the driver's eyes ... or bad weather, which slows things down, too. It doesn't take much in the way of an accident in the Denver metro area, especially if it's near a ramp ... to slow traffic up for miles around.

[Katiana]

I picked up my husband tonight at DIA. I left the house about 6 PM. We got back to Broomfield about 7:30. Traffic was heavy the whole time, except on the Tollway. From my observations, I would say "rush hour" lasts till at least 7 PM.

[BillRadio]

My wife & I commute at different times around rush hour and there is a big difference from one 30-minute segment to another. We've lived in 3 places south of Denver, and there is a huge difference leaving at 7:15 vs. 7:30. School start times are a significant variable as are days of the week. In our experience, the worst of the commute happens between 7:30 and 8:30.

To choose among the time frames you presented, 7 to 8am is the worst for the morning and 5 to 6p is the worst in the evening. Sure, other hours around those are significant, but there is a big difference between what you see nightly at 4:30 vs. 5:30. It's sad to see so many jobs are still 8 to 5.

It is a nice reflection on our population that on Fridays traffic is noticeably lighter. People will take that day off to go play in the mountains. It's enough to allow for an extra 5-10 minutes of coffee on Friday mornings for the rest of us.