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Why is driving in traffic before work and after work called "Rush Hour"? I have never understood this saying.
Yes you might be in a rush to get ready in the morning to get out the door and run to the car only to drive in SLOW moving traffic that seems to take for ever. And yes you might be waiting for work time to be finished just so you can get into your car to sit in traffic going the other direction.
Why is it called "Rush Hour"? Where did the meaning it come from? Why do we still say that when it surely does not apply?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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It does seem contrary to common sense, but think of it this way. Once you get through the congestion and finally reach your exit, you have to rush the rest of the way to get to work on time.
Everyone is in a RUSH to get to work. they all have a deadline to make it to work on time. While they usually don't have a deadline to get home, they would like to soon as possible to end there work day. So everyone is in a rush to get somewhere, whether traffic or the trains cooperates or not.
The terms has more to do with the volume of cars/people rather than how fast they are actually moving. As last that's my take. But this also fits with the "lunch time rush" when referring to one's favorite eatery or restaurant. In essence, its the timeframe where everyone wants the same thing (eat, get to work or home), and thus, everyone is "rushing" instead of waiting it out.
The terms has more to do with the volume of cars/people rather than how fast they are actually moving. As last that's my take. But this also fits with the "lunch time rush" when referring to one's favorite eatery or restaurant. In essence, its the timeframe where everyone wants the same thing (eat, get to work or home), and thus, everyone is "rushing" instead of waiting it out.
That's what I've always interpreted "rush hour" as being a large volume of people converging upon the roads/freeways/interstates in a specific time frame. A great parallel, as you pointed out, is the "lunch hour rush" where everyone is going out to find a place to eat before they have to head back to work.
As stated, by others everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere and traffic becomes congested with so many people being a hurry to reach their destination at the same time. This also seems to be the time that people drive in the worst possible way as they switch from lane to lane hopelessly trying to defeat traffic because they are in a hurry to get to work. Age/perspective is a funny beast because today I sit in the left lane and very often watch another car several lanes over put forth a dedicated effort to get ahead by switching from lane to lane only to find themselves roughly in the same position in relation to their distance from me. They could have spent the last ten miles behind me in a single lane and covered the same distance in the same amount of time. When I was younger, I was the guy switching lanes like a madman and I'm only 26 now
This also seems to be the time that people drive in the worst possible way as they switch from lane to lane hopelessly trying to defeat traffic because they are in a hurry to get to work.
I tend to find the opposite. During off-peak hours, I'm more likely to see aggressive drivers because people can drive aggressively, and you're more likely to see slow and inexperienced and generally careless drivers who aren't accustomed to driving on the highways. Many more serious accidents during off peak hours and if they occur during rush hour, they tend to be in the reverse commute direction. Rush hour accidents in the normal commuting direction tend to be fender-bender type, but you definitely do get accidents from before rush hour that aren't fully cleaned up when rush hour fully sets in, which cause delays for commuters.
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