Here’s a question that I don’t have an answer for…

Why is it that the Monday afternoon and Friday morning rush hours are almost always the lightest of the work week?

This has been the general trend in Boston for at least the last 15 years (which is how long I have experience as a traffic reporter in Boston). We’ve discussed this in our Operations Center for a long time and have never come up with what I think is a definitive answer.

If it’s very heavy on Monday morning, isn’t it logical that it would be just as heavy in the afternoon? But we rarely find a correlation between morning and afternoon volume.

Some people think that Monday afternoons are lighter because people work later on Mondays. That seems like a valid reason, but I’m not seeing people work any later on Mondays, at least not in this office.

And are people just lazier on Friday mornings? Are they sleeping later and missing the rush hour?

What’s your opinion?