3:58pm: Almost time to leave work, stop at the grocery store, pick-up your child from their after-school
activity and fill-up on gas. 15 minutes max, since they are all on the way home.
4:01pm: You are waiting to turn out of the parking lot at work.
4:03pm: You are still waiting to turn out of the parking lot at work.
4:07pm: Still waiting.
4:08pm: On the road at last!
4:11pm: You are only 100m from work.
4:23pm: Just arriving at the grocery store instead of at home in 15 minutes like you planned. What is going on here?
If it’s September and school has resumed, you are likely encountering a traffic phenomenon I call the
‘September School Slowdown’.
Now you may be thinking ‘this doesn’t make sense’. School does not let out at 4pm. There are next to no school buses still running when you leave work. How could school or September be causing the traffic?
Simple: you (like many other drivers) are making additional stops, which you normally don’t make in July and August.
Unfortunately, September also marks an increase in the number of accidents. Research suggests an increase in traffic congestion of 20-30 percent. However, this alone is not to blame for the increase in accidents. Another cause is that many drivers now have more stops to make, things to get done, and places to be. This causes people to rush and when drivers are in a rush, they are distracted and cause accidents.
Worse yet, many September accidents involve pedestrians and young children. The fear of their child being injured causes parents to take extra precautions to protect their children. One precaution is driving their children to and from school. However, this can lead to further traffic congestion, especially when parents are driving in a rush.
So, what can be done? The simplest solution is for people to take their time and slow down. There is more traffic on the roads when school is in session and driving in a rush won’t change that. What being in a rush can change, is the life of pedestrian, cyclist, or child, forever, and no one wants that.