Rush hour
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A rush hour (or peak 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 6-10 am (0600-1000) and from 3-7 pm (1500-1900) local time. With people travelling places during their lunch time by car too, it is arguable that noon till 2pm (1400) 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 coerce 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.
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[edit] Rush-hour incentives
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[edit] 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 (until 4:00 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.
[edit] United Kingdom
In London, Peak Day Travelcards allow travel at all hours that day. Off-peak Day Travelcards are 20-50% cheaper, but are only valid for travel after 9:30am and on weekends. This is an attempt to discourage travel on the London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, buses, and trams during the crowded weekday morning peak.
In Manchester the United Kingdom's secondary city, the Metrolink light rail system offers single, return and Metromax daysaver tickets at a reduced price when they are purchased after 9:30am. This incentive is designed to lure passengers into avoiding the daily crowded conditions at Metrolink stations during rush-hour.
For young person railcard holders, the offer of one-third off ticket prices is only valid after 10:00 (unless you pay a minimum fare), or at weekends. For the Young-persons railcard specifically, this rule is lifted in July and August (as this is when the summer holidays occur)[1].
For other rail cards there is a variant on this for example for the family railcard, discount is invalid for peak journeys within London and the south-west[2]
[edit] Brazil
In São Paulo, Brazil, each vehicle is assigned a certain day of the week in which they cannot travel the roads during rush hour (7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and also 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.). 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 and by hundreds of strategically positioned traffic cameras backed by computerized image-recognition systems that issue tickets to offending drivers. 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.
