My first thought is that this guy has not lived in a populated city during rush hour. Growing up in Houston, its a part of life. As soon as school is out, traffic is reduced by at least 1/3-1/2 on major freeways according to my built in road rage o meter. In suburban hubs, traffic is reduced in the evenings as well but that is more static throughout the year. Just recently during spring break my commute halved in terms of minutes in the car. I see other problems with his "study" as well, since it was a state of emergency, other people stayed home as well since they anticipated terrible weather, so as a datapoint its not very useful.
Without wanting to sound too snarky - no kidding, Sherlock.<p>Anyone who drives at rush hour in the summer months, when (UK, at least) schools are on holiday, will know how much quieter the roads are. Come September, and it's back to the jams.
"People without kids were largely unaffected."<p>Oh <i>really?</i><p>The only conclusion supported by the data is that the threat of severe weather alleviates traffic. Pinning it on kids, just because <i>most</i> of the people <i>the author knows</i> still went to work, is nonsense.<p>I'd assume this article was satire, but it's written with such sincerity that I don't think it is.
The amount of ridicule for this post seems rather surprising. This guy had a curiosity and he wanted to quantify it. I'm sure everybody knows that traffic is reduced when school is out. Why should that stop someone from asking why, by what magnitude, and what other interesting things occur during this time? I'd hazard a guess that everybody in the 1600's knew that apples fell to the ground. It took Newton to ask why.
I'm sure the author's conclusions have some merit, but the reduction in traffic likely also has a lot do with the fact that a lot of parents who would otherwise be working during the day are instead staying home with their kids.
Oh really?! Cancelling a bunch of peoples' normal activities so they don't have to travel to them reduces traffic.<p>This argument is a tautology.
Given that "traffic problems are caused by a very slight increase in the amount of cars" it's very obvious why things got calmer if a small portion of the work force had to change their routine.<p>If you are stuck in traffic you have only yourself to blame, you are the traffic.