Other meanings: Movie starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, expansion pack to SimCity 4, board game by ThinkFun , album.

A rush hour is a part of the day with busy traffic and hence traffic congestion on the roads, and crowded public transport, in particular each of the two periods in a day when people are traveling to or from work.

The name is a misnomer: it is usually more than an hour. Typically, rush hour lasts from 7:30-10 AM and 4-6:30 PM, local time. In regions where school children finish in the mid-afternoon, a new pre-rush hour has started with parents collecting their offspring by car on the school run. This is typically around 3:30 PM. With people travelling places during their lunch time by car too, it is arguable that 12:00 PM till 2:00 PM is another, less frantic, rush hour.

The frequency of public transport is usually higher in the rush hour, and in the case of trains, often longer ones are employed. However, the increase in capacity is almost always less than in proportion to the number of passengers due to the limits on available vehicles, staff and, in the case of rail transport, track capacity including platform length. As a result vehicles are more crowded and not everybody has a seat. This may have the effect of making public transport seeming less desirable, therefore pushing more people into cars and making the traffic worse.

Time-dependent road pricing such as only during rush hours, or a higher tariff in those hours (a congestion charge) may be applied to persuade people not to travel or to travel outside rush hour if they have the choice.

Similarly public transport fares may be higher; this is usually presented as an off-peak discount. Sometimes the latter applies only to holders of a special pass.

Netherlands

For example, for trains in the Netherlands there is an Off-Peak Discount Pass for €49/year, giving a discount of 40%, valid after 9:00 on weekdays, the whole day in weekends, and every day the whole day in July and August. In the case of a group of up to four people, all get the discount even if only one has a pass.

See also

• Carpool, High occupancy vehicle