Traffic.

[GoldOxide_imp]

I'm not sure if I'm the only one who's experiencing this here in Southern California, but wanted to see if it's the same in other parts of the country, or the world for that matter.

When the world shut down last year, road traffic became very light as people hunkered down and few people were going somewhere for a job each day.

Now, with the world seemingly back to a new normal, many people have remained working at home, or are not working at all. We had about 15 people working in our office each day, and now we've got six, with the remaining people able to work from home permanently. Also, about half of the commercial space around our office is still vacant.

However, road traffic on weekdays has returned to pre-pandemic level. Once again, I'm very happy to be able to ride a motorcycle to work, cutting half the time and all of the traffic. Here's me on the way to work this morning. Both the regular and car pool lanes are crawling on a Thursday morning.

Interestingly, while car and truck traffic have returned to normal, I hardly see any motorcycles on my daily commute now. Maybe one other bike every few days.

Am I the only one seeing this?

I think that might be difficult to measure accurately. For example, if you ride to work at the same time each day perhaps the roads are as full as they were before...I mean, full is full--once the hiway stretch you're on is saturated, it simply is. Traffic might crawl along at whatever slow speed just as you remember from before.

But...for how long? How long does that hiway saturation last? Perhaps before, the stretch you ride was saturated with traffic for a good 2.5 hours in the morning, let's say from 7am to 930am. But now, it may only be saturated for an hour an a half, from 730-9am. But if your commute is from 745-830, it seems as if traffic is the same as before--completely saturated during your 45 minute commute.

In reality, the saturation duration may be an hour less which means many fewer cars / vehicles on that stretch of the hiway.

I think that is a reasonable possibility. One would have to grab a thermos of coffee and park the CB1100 on top of a hill and watch traffic all morning.

[Gone in 60]

That's interesting, pdedse. My morning commute is always at the same time, so I wouldn't really know if the period of heavy traffic is shorter than it used to be. My exit time can be anywhere from around 5:30 to 6:30, and the return traffic is always the same - crowded.

I don't really feel like sitting on an overpass with a thermos of coffee to watch traffic all morning.

[pdedse]

That's interesting, pdedse. My morning commute is always at the same time, so I wouldn't really know if the period of heavy traffic is shorter than it used to be. My exit time can be anywhere from around 5:30 to 6:30, and the return traffic is always the same - crowded.

I don't really feel like sitting on an overpass with a thermos of coffee to watch traffic all morning.

Oh my, that is early for traffic to be backed up...California! In the Portland area, it seems to stack up a bit later...630am might still be decent.

That's interesting, pdedse. My morning commute is always at the same time, so I wouldn't really know if the period of heavy traffic is shorter than it used to be. My exit time can be anywhere from around 5:30 to 6:30, and the return traffic is always the same - crowded.

I don't really feel like sitting on an overpass with a thermos of coffee to watch traffic all morning.

I would imagine that the traffic cameras that many areas have actually do record if overall flow of traffic is less than pre-pandemic levels.

[GoldOxide_imp]

That's interesting, pdedse. My morning commute is always at the same time, so I wouldn't really know if the period of heavy traffic is shorter than it used to be. My exit time can be anywhere from around 5:30 to 6:30, and the return traffic is always the same - crowded.

I don't really feel like sitting on an overpass with a thermos of coffee to watch traffic all morning.

Oh my, that is early for traffic to be backed up...California! In the Portland area, it seems to stack up a bit later...630am might still be decent.

That's interesting, pdedse. My morning commute is always at the same time, so I wouldn't really know if the period of heavy traffic is shorter than it used to be. My exit time can be anywhere from around 5:30 to 6:30, and the return traffic is always the same - crowded.

I don't really feel like sitting on an overpass with a thermos of coffee to watch traffic all morning.

I would imagine that the traffic cameras that many areas have actually do record if overall flow of traffic is less than pre-pandemic levels.

Oh my, that is early for traffic to be backed up...California! In the Portland area, it seems to stack up a bit later...630am might still be decent.
. . .
If traffic backs up 5:30 am anywhere in the world, it is time to move.

[Gone in 60]

Noooo.... I meant that's what time I exit my office, between 5:30 and 6:30 PM... not AM.

But, timing can be critical. For example if I'm working a Saturday morning shift at the museum in West L.A., I know that if I don't get out the door before 8:45, I'm going to add at least 20 minutes to my commute.

[Charlie Bravo_imp]

I only ride to work on Wednesdays, to break up the week a bit, and only if I had a good route. Doing contract work, I sometimes have a really good ride to work, thru interesting roads and terrain, but sometimes the route is SoCal freeway all the way. In the mornings I like my coffee and heater, going home I like the air conditioning and I like the tunes both ways.

[tod.branko_imp]

You are definitely not the only one to see this Gone. We have had a year of very light traffic, and no-stress commutes were very easy to get used to. Our traffic started in September when the kids started going back to school, and it's apparent that is the cause of extra delays and slower traffic because midterms were last week and everything went back to "normal". Never was a better time to commute on two wheels

'14 CB1100 STD 5 speed

[Gone in 60]

Back to Pdedse's point, in the interest of scientific research, I felt that it was incumbent on me to sleep in an extra hour and go to work later than normal this morning, just to see if traffic was any lighter at 8:30 than at 7:30.

I'd say it was maybe 20% lighter, but still very heavy.

[pdedse]

Back to Pdedse's point, in the interest of scientific research, I felt that it was incumbent on me to sleep in an extra hour and go to work later than normal this morning, just to see if traffic was any lighter at 8:30 than at 7:30.

I'd say it was maybe 20% lighter, but still very heavy.

Traffic was 20% lighter and you got 20% more sleep!

[emptysea]

There are just not enough MC commuters around these parts for me to notice a difference on that. Yes, the weekday traffic has definitely increased since during the pandemic even with more people working from home than they were pre-pandemic. One thing I've noticed is that Monday traffic is not quite as bad as it used to be. I suspect that folks with a "3 Day In-office" schedule are working from home Mondays and Fridays (translation: working from wherever they spent their long weekend)