What Traffic Patterns Tell Us about Work Culture?

On our minds

Like the shift to coworking and remote work, traffic patterns began changing prior to the mass office exodus of 2020. However, the pandemic intensified and solidified these new patterns. In general, traffic has rebounded and even increased in recent years—which experts attribute not only to workers returning to the office but also to an increase in delivery drivers on the road. The Texas A&M Urban Traffic Mobility Report, which has compiled urban traffic data from 1982 till now, indicates that workers lost more time to their commute in 2024 than ever before—an average of 63 hours a year (and a whopping 137 hours in Los Angeles!). That's up from 54 hours in 2019.

A decade ago, traffic peaked during predictable morning and evening hours, signifying a more traditional eight-hour workday; studies often found that Friday afternoon was the most bottlenecked. Now, traffic patterns are less predictable, with more midday spikes, as many people enjoy flexible office hours. (Use of public transportation has also changed due to home locations and part-week patterns.) Data also shows worse traffic on Wednesdays and Thursdays than on Fridays. Meanwhile, Mondays have the lightest traffic of all weekdays. (Hmmm?)

Recent patterns indicate that more of us are choosing when and where we work. Workers are being asked to come into the office two or three days per week. And, it appears that, rather than prioritizing what makes sense in terms of productivity, efficiency, and collaboration, many workers skip the office on Mondays and Fridays to allow for longer, more flexible weekends and enable associated travel.

We get it. Who doesn't want the option to work remotely, so that you can have an extra day or two at the beach or in the mountains, even if some of that time is spent staring at your laptop? But for hybrid work to serve workers, it has to also serve teams and employers. A key advantage that human workers have over AI is that they can, in fact, be physically present. That presence may go a long way towards building rapport, training others, navigating high-stakes client relationships, and encouraging collaboration.

As we've said before, a hybrid workplace increases the need for intentional policy and practices. However, for many, the Tuesday-Thursday in-office workweek is by default rather than by intention, driven by a lack of strategic insight among leaders and reinforced by employees' preference for the weekend buffer.

A thoughtful schedule should be structured around key tasks, delivery cadence, solo focus time, and collaborative work, rather than padded weekends. For example, maybe you work from home Monday, to schedule meetings and organize the week's tasks and goals. Tuesday (and Wednesday, if needed) could be in-office days, for colleague collaboration. Wednesday or Thursday might be another at-home day — a time to mark progress and reprioritize for the second half of the week. On Friday, you return to the office to turn in deliverables and tie up loose ends — and possibly catch an afternoon happy hour or coffee with a coworker.

This may not be the perfect schedule for every employee at every company. If you find it easier to focus at the office and want a short commute, Monday is a good in-office day for you. Maybe going in on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday makes the most sense for prioritizing focus and collaboration. We aren't arguing for a specific schedule as much as for an ethos (and maybe some research). Schedules should be coordinated to maximize performance and support colleagues. Successful teamwork needs to be organized by design, not by default.

The takeaway from the post-pandemic traffic patterns is that we've gotten things wrong. (And were making it impossible to get anywhere on Wednesdays!). If we want to do our best at work and companies want to get the best performance from employees, we need to design our hybrid schedule around a balance of individual and collective performance.

From the archives

In 2023, we collected data that indicates that people like working in the office but — no surprise here — hate the commute! However, a year later, we explored some of the silver linings of commuting by  public transportation — like how conversations with casual acquaintances make us happy. We were also thinking about how to boost employee presence in the hybrid workplace.

Is your work schedule working for you? For your employer? If not, maybe it's time for another take! In the meantime, try these soothing Tiny Desk Concerts on your car stereo the next time that line on your map turns from blue to red. "Stuck in traffic" doesn't necessarily have to mean "stress in traffic."