Rush hour
From Free net encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Rush hour (disambiguation).
Image:Rush hour Tokyo.jpg A rush hour is a part of the day with busy traffic and hence traffic congestion on the roads and crowded public transport; normally the two periods in a day when people are travelling to or from work or school.
The name is a misnomer: it is usually more than an hour. Typically, rush hour lasts from 6:00 to 10:00 AM and 3:00 to 7:00 PM, local time. In regions where school children finish in the mid-afternoon, a new pre-rush hour has started with parents collecting their children by car on the school run. This is typically around 3:30 PM. With people travelling places during their lunch time by car too, it is arguable that 12:00 noon till 2:00 PM is another, less frantic, rush hour.
The frequency of public transport is usually higher in the rush hour, and in the case of trains, longer ones are often employed. However, the increase in capacity is often less than the number of passengers, due to the limits on available vehicles, staff and, in the case of rail transport, track capacity including platform length. As a result vehicles are more crowded and not everybody has a seat. This may have the effect of making public transport less desirable, therefore pushing more people into cars and making the traffic worse.
Travel demand management, such as road pricing or a congestion charge, is designed to persuade people to alter their travel habits so as to minimise congestion.
Similarly public transport fares may be higher; this is usually presented as an off-peak discount for single fares, though season tickets or multi-ride tickets, commonly used in rush hours by commuters, are also sold at a discount.
Rush-hour incentives
Template:Limitedgeographicscope
Netherlands
For trains in the Netherlands there is an Off-Peak Discount Pass for €55/year, giving a 40% discount. Its validity starts at 09:00 AM (until 4:00 AM the next morning) on weekdays, and all day at weekends and in July and August. In the case of a group of up to four people, all get the discount even if only one has a pass.
Rail passes not requiring an additional ticket come in two versions: for a fixed route, and for the whole network. Both are mainly used by commuters. No off-peak discount version of these passes is offered since there is insufficient demand; commuters usually cannot avoid the rush hour.
See also
de:Hauptverkehrszeit es:Hora punta ja:ラッシュ時 nl:Spits (verkeer) pt:Hora do rush sv:Rusningstrafik