Rush hour


A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: once in the morning and once in the afternoon or evening, the times during which most people commute. The term is often used for a period of peak congestion that may last for more than one hour.
The term is very broad, but often refers specifically to private automobile transportation traffic, even when there is a large volume of cars on a road but not many people, or if the volume is normal but there is some disruption of speed. By analogy to vehicular traffic, the term Internet rush hour has been used to describe periods of peak data network usage, resulting in delays and slower delivery of data packets.

Definition

The name is sometimes a misnomer, as the peak period often lasts more than one hour and the "rush" refers to the volume of traffic, not the speed of its flow. Peak traffic periods may vary from country to country, city to city, from region to region, and seasonally.
The frequency of public transport service is usually higher in the rush hour, and longer trains or larger vehicles are often used. However, the increase in capacity is often less than the increased number of passengers, due to the limits on available vehicles, staff and, in the case of rail transport, track capacity including platform length. The resulting crowding may force many passengers to stand, and others may be unable to board. If there is inadequate capacity, this can make public transport less attractive, leading to higher car use and partly shifting the congestion to roads.
Transport demand management, such as road pricing or a congestion charge, is designed to induce people to alter their travel timing to minimize congestion. Similarly, public transport fares may be higher during peak periods; this is often presented as an off peak discount for single fares. Season tickets or multi-ride tickets, sold at a discount, are commonly used in rush hours by commuters, and may or may not reflect rush hour fare differentials.
Staggered hours have been promoted as a means of spreading demand across a longer time span—for example, in Rush Hour and by the International Labour Office.

Traffic management by country

Australia and New Zealand

In the morning, and evening, 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 usually heavily congested each morning and evening. In Perth, Mitchell Freeway, Kwinana Freeway and various arterial roads are usually congested between peak hours, making movement between suburbs and the city quite slow.
Efforts to minimise traffic congestion during peak hour vary on a state by state and city by city basis.
In Melbourne, congestion is managed by means including:
  • Inbound transit lanes on busy freeways which are limited to motorcycles and other vehicles with more than one occupant during busy periods.
  • Free travel on metropolitan trains before 7am. Passengers must exit the system at their destination station before 7:15am, a 15-minute buffer for disembarking and touching off.
  • Dedicated bus lanes on major inner city roads such as Hoddle Street.
  • Introduction of dedicated bicycle lanes in the inner city area to encourage cyclists and deter dual-track vehicles.
  • Prohibition of parking along busy roads during peak traffic periods to create an extra lane for traffic.
In Brisbane, congestion is managed by means including:
  • Fares for using public transport outside of peak periods are cheaper than peak period fares.
  • Transport for Brisbane operated bus lines for Translink, Bus upgrade zone) designated lines increase their frequency from every 15 minutes to every 10 minutes between 7am and 9am, and between 4:30pm and 6:30pm.
  • Busways in Brisbane grade separate a significant amount of bus traffic, particularly on the South and Eastern suburbs using the South East Busway, the Eastern Busway, with some relief on the northern suburbs provided by the Northern Busway. This reduces the traffic load shared by buses and other vehicles, therefore allowing for more capacity for other vehicles on major trunk roads in and out of Brisbane.
  • Some specific peak-hour only bus services are denoted by a "P" prefix where only fares are accepted by tapping on with a go card, with no cash-paid ticket sales. These services may also be noted as having the suffix
"" in timetables, where many inner city suburb stops may be bypassed.
  • On some Queensland Rail operated lines for Translink, increase frequency from every 30 minutes to as frequent as every 6 minutes, between 6:45am and 7:45am and from 4:45pm to 5:45pm during peak times. Most notable on the Caboolture, Ipswich & Rosewood, Redcliffe Peninsula and Springfield lines.
  • On the Caboolture, Sunshine Coast and Redcliffe Peninsula line, trains may run express to reduce travel time. A notable example is the trains on the Cabooolture and Sunshine Coast lines run express from Petrie to Bowen Hills, stopping only at Northgate, Eagle Junction and Bowen Hills; previously before the timetable changes, average commute time from Caboolture to Central was 1 hour and 6 minutes. After the timetable changes, it was reduced to 51 minutes, a saving of 15 minutes.
  • Introduction of the South East Bikeway, which runs alongside the South East Busway to allow for cycle commuting from the Southern suburbs. Some paths along the Brisbane River are also widened to include a specific bikeway section.
  • Prohibition of parking along busy roads during peak traffic periods to create an extra 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 Trains network runs double-decker electric multiple unit trains that allowed many more passengers to board the trains compared to the 1950s single-level 'Red Rattlers', and 'Silver Ghosts'.
  • Time-of-day ticket prices allow train commuters to board trains before 6 am or after 7 pm at a cheaper rate on single or day return tickets
  • Transit and/or HOV Lanes are installed on many major arterial roads,
  • The Rail Clearways Program, which allows for broken-down trains on the Sydney Trains network to not affect the running of trains on separate lines due to building bypasses, and loop-backs alongside the existing track
  • The Inner West Light Rail, which was the first operational light rail line in Sydney, increases headways during peak hour, providing services up to every eight minutes.
Traffic congestion is managed through the Traffic Management Centre via a network of Closed Circuit TV's, with operators able to change the timing of traffic signals to reduce wait times
  • Most major motorways have the ability for contraflow lane to allow continuing flow of traffic in case of a major accident
  • Older motor ways have been upgraded from two lanes in each direction, to three lanes in each direction
  • Motor way toll booths have been replaced with electronic toll systems ; time-of-day tolling is in use on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel to provide cash incentives for commuters to remain out of the city in peak times.

    Brazil

In São Paulo, Brazil, each vehicle is assigned a certain day of the week in which it cannot travel the roads during rush hour. The day of the week for each vehicle is derived from the last digit in the licence plate number and the rule is enforced by traffic police. This policy is aimed at reducing the number of vehicles on the roads and encouraging the use of buses, subway and the urban train systems.

Canada

portion of the Trans-Canada Highway is served with high-occupancy vehicle lanes in addition to standard lanes for all automobiles. These lanes are meant to improve traffic flow by encouraging carpooling and transit use. Richmond, part of the Vancouver metro region, is also constructing a new interchange at Steveson Highway 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 is served also by HOV lanes.

China

China is home to some of the busiest subway networks in the world. Despite aggressive expansion of rapid transit networks in the past decade, rapid urban population growth has put heavy demand on urban transport. Some systems routinely restrict station entrances and transfer passages to prevent the network from being overwhelmed. For example, 96 subway stations in the Beijing Subway have entry restrictions at some point of the day. The Guangzhou Metro has 51 stations with passenger flow restrictions.

Colombia

In the pico y placa program in Bogotá, drivers of non-commercial automobiles are prevented from driving them during rush hours on certain days of the week. The vehicles barred each day are determined by the last digit of their license plate. The measure is mandatory and those who break it are penalized. The digits banned each day are rotated every year.

Japan

In Japan, the proportion of rail transportation is high compared with the use of automobiles. Rail transport accounts for 27% of all passenger transport in Japan, United Kingdom, United States ). In the Greater Tokyo Area and the Keihanshin metropolitan area there is a dense rail network and frequent service, which accounts for more than half of the passenger transport; most people in the area commute by public transport without using cars.
Railways in the Greater Tokyo Area are traditionally known to be severely congested, with oshiya employed to assist passengers getting on the train. This is gradually being improved by increasing rail capacity and demand management. Train lines in Tokyo have had significant reductions in overcrowding and today run at an average of 163 percent of capacity. This is in contrast to the average loading of 221 percent of designed capacity in 1975 rush-hour trains.
In road transport, the expressways of Japan operate on a beneficiaries-pay principle which imposes expensive toll fees, having the effect of reducing road traffic. Electronic toll collection is widespread and discounts during low-traffic periods have been introduced to distribute traffic over a longer period. Road pricing is being considered but has not been introduced, partly because the expressway fee is already very high.