Sneakin' toward the weekend, workers fill roadways
Yes, the rush hour does come earlier Friday for many workers, bay area traffic statistics show.
By MATTHEW WAITE
Published August 1, 2003
[Times photo: Ken Helle]
There are about 10 percent more drivers on the Howard Frankland Bridge between 1-2 p.m. on Fridays than at the same time in the middle of the week.
ST. PETERSBURG - For office worker Sonja Mitchell and a lot of others, Friday is a happy day. Especially the end of Friday.
"Sometimes it's harder to focus on the hour you're working in because all you can think about is the ending hour," she said while eating lunch outside in downtown St. Petersburg on a recent Friday.
The ending hour on Friday seems to be getting earlier for a lot of workers.
Anyone who's shaved a few hours off the old timecard on a Friday afternoon knows they weren't alone when they did it. Rush hour on a Friday comes much earlier - as early as 3 p.m. - compared to the middle of the week.
A Times analysis of hourly traffic volume on four major commuting routes in the bay area for the past five years found that increasingly, more people have been hitting the road early on Friday than on the most worklike day, Wednesday.
More cheaters, cutting out early under the nose of the boss? Probably. An early escape on Friday is nothing new (and getting people to admit to it for the newspaper isn't easy).
But experts point out that with an explosion in the use of cell phones, more high speed Internet at home, flexible starting and quitting times for employees and other recent changes in the workplace, an earlier rush hour on Friday is a side effect of larger social forces.
"Things have clearly changed," said Steve Polzin, director of transportation demand management at the University of South Florida's Center for Urban Transportation Research.
Several studies have found that Americans are working more hours than ever before. But rigid, 8-5 work schedules - a product of a more manufacturing-based economy - are fading away, Polzin said. More offices are allowing employees to use flexible schedules.
And, flex time is a cheap way to retain employees in tough times.
"Money is tight," said Jeffrey LePine, a professor of business administration at the University of Florida. "Raises and compensation are difficult to give to people."
There also have been fundamental changes in some workplaces, LePine said. Offices are using more teams - semi-autonomous groups who have a specific function - and there are fewer layers of management keeping tabs on who is at their desk at 5 p.m.
"If people want to leave, it's fine so long as the work is done," he said.
Adding to the trend is today's world of interconnectivity.
The Telecommunications Industry Association reported that 58.9-million cell phones were sold in 2002, and it estimates another 61.1-million will be sold in 2003. The industry group also predicts there will be 60-million people who can get e-mail on their cell phones by 2006. "The work can get done virtually," LePine said. "People don't have to be as co-located as they used to."
With so many opportunities to do work, and no hard rule that says an employee has to stay until 5 p.m., it's not hard to imagine an earlier rush hour on Friday, Polzin said.
The Tampa side of the Howard Frankland Bridge - one of the area's most heavily traveled roads - is a perfect example.
During the average 1 p.m. hour on a Friday in 2002, there were 623, or 9 percent, more cars on the bridge than at the same time on Wednesday. By 2 p.m., the gap is up to 682, or 10 percent. By 4 p.m., the gap starts to narrow and by the 6 p.m. hour, the average Wednesday volume has exceeded Friday's.
Same story on East Bay Drive near the Bayside Bridge in Clearwater. And at 34th Street N near 36th Avenue in St. Petersburg. And at Interstate 275 near Floribraska Avenue in Tampa. Rush hour starts early on Friday.
From her store's windows facing First Avenue N near 2nd Street in St. Petersburg, Lynne Alexander has a view on the worker exodus. Her shop, Heavenly Things, is open until 8 p.m. Fridays, and she watches traffic - both foot and car - pick up Friday afternoons.
"It's dead between 4 and 7 p.m." she said about business on Friday. "And then it comes back up. You have to wait out that period."
The data, collected by the Florida Department of Transportation, isn't a perfect measure of anything other than the number of cars on the road. It comes from a few of the 281 permanent traffic counting stations around the state that just count vehicles. The data is used by traffic engineers and planners to design roads to best handle the traffic demand. But they don't use Mondays and Fridays when creating an average traffic figure for a particular road. They want a typical day, and that means Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Most holidays are Mondays or Fridays. More vacation days are taken on Mondays and Fridays. And more - cough, cough - unexplained variations in rush hour traffic occur on those days.
Mitchell, the St. Petersburg office worker, isn't one of the early Friday departures. She works in the call center at Community Health Solutions, and employees there have to stay until 6 p.m. to answer phones. Some employees in her office get flex time, and a lot of them take advantage on Friday afternoon, Mitchell said.
"We tend not to be jealous of the ones who get to go," she said. "We sort of support each other.
"We still have a Friday, even though it starts a little later."
