Rush hour

Point time in Tokyo.

Illustration of a formation of the Buenos Aires subway during the peak hour.

The rush hour or peak hour is the name given to the period of time, not necessarily an hour, in which congestion regularly occurs. They generally refer to congestion on public roads, and can be over-demand or peak congestion on highways or main avenues, as well as saturation of public transport, and the main reasons why these congestions occur are because in the In large cities, most of the workforce enters or leaves their jobs at the same time.

The name is not very precise, since it is not usually confined to a single hour but can exceed this period. During rush hour there are usually traffic jams and congestion on the roads that connect the main cities with the so-called commuter towns, as well as on some main avenues in the city itself. In addition, public transport services (buses, metro, etc.) generally result in a greater demand than the offer offered, generating delays due to the crowds that gather.

The concept is applied in other fields such as the production of electricity or the consumption of telephone or internet connections. Referred to telephone traffic, when all the lines between two locations are busy simultaneously and some calls cannot progress. In this scope it is also called busy hour.

Since demand is variable, facilities must be calculated to accept load greater than the average load. In the case of electricity, there are generators that have to work continuously day and night. In order to try to balance the demand for these services throughout the day, different rates are offered at peak times than during off-peak hours, thus users tend to moderate the imbalance in demand throughout the day.

Traffic management by country

Australia and New Zealand

The traffic slows down on the Monash Highway in Melbourne, Australia, at peak time and due to works on the road.

Point time at Melbourne Southern Cross Station

In the morning (6-9am) and afternoon (4:30-7pm), Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, and Auckland and Christchurch are usually the most congested cities in Australia and New Zealand, respectively. In Melbourne, the Monash Freeway, which connects Melbourne's suburban sprawl to the city, is often heavily congested each morning and evening. In Perth, the Mitchell Freeway, Kwinana Freeway, and various arterial roads are often congested between rush hours, making movement between the suburbs and the city quite slow.

Efforts to minimize traffic congestion during rush hour vary from state to state and city to city.

In Melbourne, congestion is managed by means including:

• Highway road traffic roadways that are limited to motorcycles and other vehicles with more than one occupant during periods of activity.
• Free travel on metropolitan trains before 7 a.m. Passengers must leave the system at their destination station by 7 a. m.
• Exclusive rails for buses on the main roads of the city center, such as Hoddle Street.
• Introducing unique bike lanes (often by removing vehicle lanes) in the inner area of the city to encourage cyclists and deter dual-way vehicles.
• Prohibition of parking along roads with lots of traffic during periods of greater traffic to create an additional lane for traffic.

In Brisbane, congestion is managed by means including:

• The rates for using public transport outside peak periods (called outside peak periods) are cheaper than peak periods rates.
• For the bus lines operated by Brisbane Transport for Translink, the lines designated by BUZ (bus update zone) increase their frequency from every 15 minutes to every 10 minutes between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., and between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
• The bus routes in the Brisbane grade separate a significant amount from the bus traffic, particularly in the southern and eastern suburbs using the southeast bus route, the east bus route (connects with the southeast bus route in Buranda), with some relief in the northern suburbs provided by the north Busway, Brisbane. This reduces the traffic burden shared by buses and other vehicles, allowing greater capacity for other vehicles on the main roads inside and outside Brisbane.
• Some specific bus services only in peak hours are indicated with a "P" prefix where only fees are accepted when playing with a go card, without selling cash paid tickets. It can also be noted that these services have the suffix.
• "(Cohete)" on schedules, where many stops from the suburbs of the city center can be omitted.
• In some lines operated by the Queensland Rail City network for Translink, increase the frequency of every 30 minutes to every 6 minutes, between 6:45 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. at 5:45 p.m. during peak hours. The most remarkable in the Caboolture line, Ipswich line, Redcliffe Peninsula line and Springfield railway line.
• In the Caboolture line, the Sunshine Coast railway line and the Redcliffe Peninsula line, trains can move quickly to reduce travel time. A remarkable example is the trains of the Cabooolture and Sunshine Coast lines that go express from Petrie to Bowen Hills, stopping only in Northgate, Eagle Junction and Bowen Hills; before it changed the schedule, the average travel time of Caboolture to the central station was 1 hour and 6 minutes. After the time changes, it was reduced to 51 minutes, a savings of 15 minutes.
• Introduction of the bike lane of the southeast, which runs along the bike lane of the southeast to allow bike rides from the southern suburbs. Some roads along the Brisbane River are also widened to include a specific section of cycleways (particularly between Toowong and North Quay).
• Prohibition of parking along roads with lots of traffic during periods of greater traffic to create an additional lane for traffic.

In Sydney, congestion is managed by many means, including:

• Buses increase frequency from 4 per hour to 12 per hour on the Metrobus network, other routes increase limited and express services
• The Sydney train network operates two-story electric multi-unit trains that allowed many more passengers to board compared to the 'Red Rattlers' and the 'Silver Ghosts' of a single level in the 1950s.
• Ticket prices according to the time of the day allow travelers to board the trains before 6 a.m. or after 7 p.m. to a more economical rate on round-trip tickets of a day or a day.
• Transit and/or HOV lanes are installed on many important arterial roads.
• The ClearWays project, which allows trains to be broken in the Sydney train network, does not affect the operation of trains in separate lines due to the construction of detours and laps along the existing track.
• The Sydney Light Rail Dulwich Hill Line, which was the first light train line operating in Sydney, increases the intervals during peak hours, providing services up to eight minutes.

Traffic congestion is managed through the Traffic Management Center via a network of closed-circuit televisions, with operators capable of changing the timing of traffic signals to reduce waiting times.

Most major highways have crossflow capability to allow for the continuous flow of traffic in the event of a major accident. Older motor ways have been upgraded from two lanes in each direction to three lanes in each direction Motorway toll booths have been replaced with electronic toll systems (Hills M2 was the last to do so on January 21, 2012); Time-of-day tolling is in use at the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Sydney Harbor Tunnel to provide cash incentives for commuters to stay out of the city at peak times.

Brazil

In São Paulo, Brazil, each vehicle is assigned a certain day of the week on which it cannot drive on the roads during rush hour (7 to 10 AM and 5 to 8 PM). The day of the week for each vehicle is derived from the last digit in the license plate number and the rule is enforced by the traffic police (1 and 2 for Mondays, 3 and 4 for Tuesdays, 5 and 6 for Wednesdays, 7 and 8 for Thursday and Friday 9 and 10). This policy aims to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads and encourage the use of buses, metro and urban train.

Canada

In Toronto, rush hour usually lasts from 6:30 to 9:30 in the morning and later than 3:00 PM. Until 7:00 p.m. Montreal, however, has peak hours of 6:30–8:30 AM. m. and 3:30–5 p.m. m..

In the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, rush hour usually lasts from 7 to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. M. And it starts again at 2:30 to 6 p.m. M. The overwhelming traffic causes significant delays on freeways and commuter routes, particularly Anthony Henday Drive in Edmonton, where the province has committed to widening, and Deerfoot Trail in Calgary. Edmonton's Whitemud Drive and Yellowhead Trail are also notable as the busiest highways after Anthony Henday Drive (Yellowhead is only 75% highway, though construction is ongoing to completion), while Calgary's Crowchild Trail and Stoney Trail under construction are the busiest after Deerfoot. Both cities and Alberta are working on ways to improve traffic flow, such as widening, interchange improvements, and the collector-distributor systems that are proposed for Anthony Henday Drive and Stoney Trail, respectively.

The Vancouver portion of the Trans-Canada Highway has high-occupancy vehicle lanes in addition to standard all-car lanes. These lanes are intended to improve traffic flow by encouraging carpooling and public transportation. Richmond, part of the Greater Vancouver region, is also building a new interchange at the Stevenson Expressway and British Columbia Highway 99, which will be the first of its kind in British Columbia in an effort to improve traffic flow.

Kelowna's Harvey Avenue also has HOV lanes, though residents have criticized their existence as redundant and unnecessary due to Kelowna's population. Since then, the City of Kelowna has reduced its hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. M. to 7 p.m. M., Monday to Friday. Rush hour is usually 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. M.A. to 9 a.m. m., as well as 3 p.m. m to 5 p.m. m.

Chinese

Transfer at the Fuxingmen station from Line 2 to Line 1. Note the barrier used to restrict passenger flow to reduce congestion on Line 1 platforms.

China is home to some of the world's busiest metro networks. Despite the aggressive expansion of rapid transit networks in the past decade, rapid urban population growth has placed high demands on transportation urban. Some systems routinely restrict station entries and transfer tickets to avoid overloading the network. For example, 96 stations in the Beijing subway have entry restrictions at any time of the day. Guangzhou subway has 51 stations with passenger flow restrictions.

Columbia

In the pico y placa program (pico y placa de matrícula) in several cities of the country such as Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cúcuta, Pasto among others; drivers of non-commercial cars are prevented from the driving license during rush hours (or all day in the case of Bogotá since 2022) on certain days of the week. Vehicles prohibited each day are generally determined by the last digit of their license plate. The measure is mandatory and those who violate it are punished. The prohibited digits each day are usually rotated each year.

Greece

In the capital city of Athens, peak hours are usually 7-10 a.m. to 5 p.m. M. and from 4 to 7 p.m. M. During these periods, there is congestion in the Athens mass transit system, especially buses and metro, as well as road traffic. The 6-car trains of the Athens metro carry almost 1.5 million passengers on a typical weekday.

Japan

Point time at Shinjuku station, Tokyo. The station is the busiest in the world, used by approximately 3.8 million passengers per day in 2008.

In Japan, the proportion of rail transport is high compared to the use of automobiles. Rail transport accounts for 27% of all passenger transport in Japan (other examples: Germany (7.7%), United Kingdom (6.4%), United States (0.6%)). In the area Greater Tokyo and the Keihanshin metropolitan area have a dense rail network and frequent service, accounting for more than half of passenger transport; most people in the area commute by public transportation without using cars.

Traditionally the railways in the Tokyo metropolitan area are known to be severely congested, and oshiya is employed to help passengers board the train. This is gradually being improved by increasing rail capacity and demand management. Train lines in Tokyo have seen significant reductions in overcrowding and today run at an average of 163 percent capacity. This is in contrast to the average load of 221 percent of designed capacity [a] on 1975 trains. in rush hour.

In road transport, Expressways of Japan abides by a beneficiary payment principle that imposes expensive toll fees, which has the effect of reducing road traffic. Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) is widespread and discounts have been introduced during low traffic periods to disperse traffic over a longer period than rush hour. Highway pricing is being considered but has not been introduced, partly because motorway pricing is already very high.

Holland

For trains in the Netherlands a discount is available at peak times which gives a 40% discount. Its validity begins at 9 in the morning (until 4 in the morning of the following day) from Monday to Friday, and throughout the day on weekends and in July and August. In the case of a group of up to four people, everyone gets the discount even if only one has a pass.

Rail passes that do not require an additional ticket come in two versions: fixed-route and network-wide. Both are mainly used by travelers. No off-peak version of these discounted passes are offered as demand is insufficient; commuters usually can't avoid rush hour.

Philippines

Within Metro Manila, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority implements the Unified Vehicle Volume Reduction Program, popularly known as the "number coding scheme". The program stipulates that vehicles are prohibited from driving on all roads within the metropolis, according to the last digit of their license plates and the day of the week.

Vehicles are prohibited from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. M. to 7 p.m. Unlike public vehicles, private vehicles have a five-hour window exception that runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. M. Until 3 p.m. M. However, the cities of Makati and San Juan do not implement the five-hour window.

This table shows license plates with numbers ending with their corresponding days:

Exempt from the program are motorcycles, school buses, shuttle buses, ambulances, fire trucks, police cars, military vehicles, those transporting a person in need of immediate medical attention, and vehicles with diplomatic plates.

On the other hand, in other places, there are certain policies that the municipal or municipal government is proposing or has implemented for the entire municipality or city.

While most schools are open, rush hours on rapid transit trains on the Manila Metro Rail Transit System and Manila Light Rail Transit System and on commuter trains in the Philippine National Railways are from 6 to 9 a.m. M. and 4-8 p.m. m.

Singapore

In Singapore, there is a free ride plan before 7:45 AM. And a discount of 50 cents between 7:45 AM. And 8 AM., which applies only if you exit and do not enter the 18 stations of the CBD. This is an attempt to encourage commuters to ride the MRT outside of the busy weekday morning rush. Electronic highway pricing is intended to discourage driving between 7:30 AM. and 8 PM. In addition, employees received travel incentives through the Travel Smart program. Peak hours are defined as follows: 7:30–9:30 a.m. m. and 5–8 p.m. m., with different schedules for the terminal stations.

United Kingdom

In London, the Peak Day Travelcard allows you to travel at any time. Non-Peak Day Travelcards are 20-50% cheaper, but are only valid for travel after 9:30am. M. And on weekends. This is an attempt to encourage commuters to ride the London Underground, Docklands Light Rail, buses and trams outside of the busy weekday morning rush. There is a similar system of Transport (Bus and Tyne and Wear Metro) in the Newcastle upon Tyne area. In London, congestion charges are intended to discourage driving between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. m. and 6 p.m. m..

In Manchester, the Metrolink light rail system offers round-trip tickets and 'Metromax' day saver tickets for many. at a reduced price when purchased after 9:30 a.m. m.. This incentive is designed to entice riders to avoid daily crowded conditions at Metrolink stations during peak hours.

For Railcard holders aged 16-25, the offer of one third off ticket prices is valid only after 10am. m. (unless a minimal fee is paid) or on weekends. This restriction does not apply in July and August, the main summer vacation season.

For other Railcards other restrictions apply; for example, Family Railcard and Network Railcard cannot be used for peak travel within London and South East England.

United States

Traffic in Atlanta during peak hours

Great congestion in peak hours at US 25 along Gratiot Avenue in Detroit in the 1940s.

Efforts to manage transportation demand during peak hours vary by state and metropolitan area. In some states, freeways have designated lanes that become HOV (high-occupancy vehicle, also known as carpool) only during rush hour, while being open to all vehicles at other times. On others, such as the Massachusetts portion of I-93, travel in the breakdown lane is permitted during this time. Several states use ramp meters to regulate traffic entering freeways during rush hour. Transportation officials in Colorado and Minnesota have added value pricing to some urban highways around Denver, the Twin Cities and Seattle, charging motorists a higher toll during peak periods.

Transit agencies, such as Metro North serving New York City, WMATA serving Washington D.C., often charge riders a "peak fare" higher for travel during morning and evening rush hours.

Morning rush hours can range from 6-10am. M. In cities like New York. Some New York commuters try to be on the road by at least 6 A.M. Because the traffic gets heavy between 6:30 and 10 am. Many train travelers leave early to get the best seats on the trains, because at 7 a.m. m. the trains are full of standing passengers or those who cannot get on. Los Angeles, California has several rush hours, including midnight for night workers. Bus and train services (such as Metrolink) in Los Angeles are limited and tend to be underutilized, but usage is increasing. In the Chicago area people use the Metra trains the 'L' and the buses.

In northeast Ohio, near Cleveland, the morning rush hour is 7-9am. M., and the rush hour is from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. M. Due to Cleveland's compact size, most people can be in downtown Cleveland in 10 to 45 minutes. The Cleveland Metropolitan Area Regional Transit Authority operates buses every half hour or more frequently and some routes have non-stop buses that run during peak hours. The Red Line heavy rail service runs every ten minutes, and the Blue Green Line and Ocean Front light rail service runs every fifteen minutes.

There is also an afternoon rush hour. For example, in the New York City area, the evening rush hour can start at 2:30-3pm and last until 7-7:30pm. Some people who live in Connecticut but work in New York often don't get home until 7 p.m. m. or later. On the other hand, in a smaller city like Cleveland, the evening rush hour takes place in a more literal sense, such that heavy traffic congestion usually only occurs between 5 and 6 p.m. m.. Typically, the RTA in Cleveland has a rush hour schedule in the afternoon, like the morning.

Traffic that goes to Philadelphia on Interstate 95 during the peak time of the morning.

The city of Philadelphia is known for its very dangerous Schuylkill Expressway, much of which predates the 1956 introduction of the Interstate Highway System. One of the busiest highways in the country (and in the state of Pennsylvania) and with the highway well over capacity, it has become notorious for its chronic congestion, especially during rush hour. Rush hour in Philly is usually 6 a.m. m., and many in the Delaware Valley use Schuylkill to get to downtown Philadelphia.and some of Philadelphia's western suburbs. The rugged terrain, limited riverfront space covered by the route, and narrow spans of bridges passing over the highway have greatly hampered subsequent attempts to improve or widen the highway. An average of 163,000 vehicles use the highway each day in Philadelphia County and an average of 109,000 use the highway in Montgomery County. Its narrow lane and left shoulder configuration, left lane entrances and exits (nicknamed 'merge or die'), common construction activity, and general congested conditions have led to many accidents, critical injuries, and deaths., which has given rise to the humorous nickname of the highway of "Surekill". Expressway "or in an additional ornament," Surekill Distressway ".

Boston and the greater Greater Boston region are notorious for traffic congestion due to the high population density, antiquated highway system, and economic growth in the region, resulting in a high concentration of corporations with large offices located along major highways and urban loops (including Route 128 MassPike I-93 and I-495). Despite the compact nature of the region, incoming traffic becomes very heavy on all highways from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. m. on a typical weekday morning, making an incoming trip from the suburbs take up to 75 minutes. Improvements brought about by the infamous Big Dig The project temporarily improved freeway traffic within the Boston city limits, but traffic congestion soon returned, also appearing in areas like South Boston's fast-developing Seaport District.