Austin always has bad traffic, but is just me or does Friday afternoon always seem especially bad? And if so, why?

I've had that in perception as well for the past decade. I've always assumed it's due to all the people coming into town or headed through town for the weekend.

jah003 said:

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Nobody in this town works until 5. Especially not on Friday.

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Probably a good point. I've noticed that when I come home around 3-5 it's a zoo on Fridays. When I come home between 6-7 on Fridays, it's almost all gone (compared to Mon-Thurs).

Pothead responds everytime

Everyone skips out early trying to beat everyone else do it's heavy early.

Anecdotal, but I've always thought that Friday traffic started early, around 1-2pm in some cases.
I do miss being able to zip around town like during the pandemic.

Apache said:

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Anecdotal, but I've always thought that Friday traffic started early, around 1-2pm in some cases.
I do miss being able to zip around town like during the pandemic.

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No kidding. And taking my kid to school in the morning while most were still doing the homeschool thing, it was zip in and zip out

I started doing the grocery shopping on Fridays at start of shutdown because I was WFH. Still doing it and Friday evenings ~1600 from Brentwood to CM on Lamar not that bad. And the store is empty.

A lot of congestion now is caused by idiots on cell phones that can't understand hands free means you can't hold that with both hands at the top of your steering wheel. They don't pay any attention and so lights back up more, they don't hold their lane, and can't maintain a following distance. Usually they are the main reason for some sort of slowdown from what I have seen.

Granted, I am usually hoping to not be in Austin on Saturday mid-day. Almost anywhere else is preferrable for me.