Everyone loves a good theory, ideally a conspiracy one, and because the World has changed so much in the last few years, it seems they’re everywhere.
There is pretty much a theory for everything these days, from how the pandemic started to why Putin invaded Ukraine. I’m not even sure on the difference between a theory and an opinion if I’m perfectly honest!
Anyway, back to the point… I definitely remember about 6 months ago reading an article that Covid had accelerated the move to home working, therefore we can expect fewer cars on the road. I remember it because I thought well that’s one good thing to come out of the last 2 years, a glimmer of light in an otherwise pretty dark World.
I guess the ‘theory’ behind this is pretty straightforward, if people are only in the office 2 days per week, then they’re not commuting for 3 days per week, a 60% reduction in travel… brilliant news I thought and in addition some of the environmental woes of the World are now resolved!
However, after sitting in traffic pretty much every day over the last few months I think there may be a problem in the theory.
When I was in the office, I would park my car at ~8am and only return to it at~5.30pm. A pattern followed by millions of people around the World. It was undoubtedly chaos on the roads every morning and every evening, but there was a definite lull in traffic during the day outside of cities.
Oh how things have changed with more people working from home!
For sure, I don’t get in the car at 8am, but now it’s perfectly normal to ‘pop out’ a couple of times in the day for lunch or to do household chores. A quick 5 minutes to get milk, a dash to get dry cleaning, or a run to the car wash. In essence, no more long commute, but instead multiple short journeys of 2-3 miles.
So my completely unscientific and anecdotal theory is that local traffic is considerably worse following the pandemic!
Long, predictable, and repeated commutes are out, with sporadic and chaotic local trips very much in, which is probably not breaking the road network, but it now seems continuously busy.
I’ll leave the science implications for someone else, but rest assured getting a parking space at 10.30am on a Tuesday in the village used to be much easier, and I don’t believe for one second that the environment will benefit from these short trips… unless you’re in a hybrid… but that’s one for another blog.
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