DC Traffic is Not to Be Trifled With

DC is known for its political and vehicular gridlock, but there's long been a debate among residents about which days of the week are worst for commuting.

While many argue that Tues-Thurs is the roughest for traffic on the road, there are those who say that Friday's evening rush hour is the most brutal.

Reston Limousine, a local transit company headquartered in Virginia, decided to put the matter to rest once and for all. With so many vehicles on the road every day, they have a pretty good sense of traffic patterns and general commuter woes.

Looking at a google map traffic sample every day at 5 pm for a month straight, they identified a number of trends. Most interestingly:

Tuesday is the worst day for commuting in the DC area. The local roadways are jammed with construction, accidents, and other irritating obstructions. Fridays are, perhaps surprisingly, the second worst of the week in terms of time spent in the car heading home from the office.

While the weekends were clearly the quietest of all, Sunday was just slightly less congested than Saturdays.

Here’s how the weekdays stacked up from least congested to most congested:

1. Sunday
2. Saturday
3. Monday
4. Thursday
5. Wednesday
6. Friday
7. Tuesday