Rat Run
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A rat run is a colloquial term for a short cut that traffic takes, usually on residential side streets in a urban area. Drivers familiar with the local geography will often take such short cuts, to avoid busy main roads and junctions, even at the expense of having to negotiate traffic calming measures that may be in place to discourage them.
The associations with "beating the crowd", the rush hour, and the rat race likely gave rise to the term. However, it literally derives from the habit of rats in finding and maintaining foraging routes that are covert.
