Commuters: Do you feel that road work and roadside tree trimming should be done after 10:00 a.m., when possible, in order to help reduce traffic jams?

Not necessarily. I think that commuting should be done at other hours than it is.

Most cities I have lived in do not do work during rush hours. Of course some of it depends on how trafficked the road. Even states that do oay attention to this, sometimes have a few days or weeks when the contruction severly interferes with rush hour traffic on major highways, but there is usually signs up for a couple weeks before it starts warning drivers. My experience living in Raleigh, NC was they did not pay as much attention to traffic needs as when I live in southeast FL. In FL a lot of the time major road closures for construction were done in the middle of the night.

It would be nice for the commuters, but not so nice for the contractors doing the trimming. The jobs you see them doing aren’t their only ones. They have to fit them all in some way and unfortunately, it’s not always during slow traffic periods.

It’s always an issue whenever they’re trimming along roadways. They just have to do it safely.

After 10:00 a.m., might solve your problems, but not everyone commutes during the traditional “rush hours” .. so it will still be a problem no matter when they do it in certain locations.

I live in Southern California and for the most part it seems these types of non-emergency activities ARE done at the off hours. No way would they close off lanes for trimming trees during rush hour.

No. I live in a Tree City. It takes them weeks to trim all of the trees when they schedule the work (we needed this done last year). I’m fine with them doing what they need to do to be safe.

People were aware of the work weeks in advance. Yet, they still didn’t adjust their morning drive time. That is not the fault of the tree trimmers or the road crews.

@JustPlainBarb But, after 10:00 there is less traffic. A lane closure may not slow traffic much.

I have always thought it has more to do with money. Working people overnight probably means higher wages. Working them from 10:00 to 4:00 might mean the construction goes longer, or maybe it is difficult to find people who will work part time hours. Maybe if it is a six day week that would be full time, but people wouldn’t like that schedule maybe? Honestly though, I think peoe generally want to work.

@SpatzieLover I live in a tree city also. I am not sure if they trim during rush hour. They do need to trim on one of the major rural highways here, lots of traffic during rush hour. I don’t travel during rush hour usually living here, so I don’t know how early they are out. If they were out trimming during rush hour on that road I would find it to be a bad idea.

One thought. There is an issue of the heat mid summer in many cities. During the middle of the day it is very hot, and not safe for workers doing very physical jobs.

Waiting until 10 am to begin work makes it a short work day and will mean it will take more days to get it all done thus dragging the job and misery out even longer. If it is hot out, the cooler temps make it preferable to get started as early as possible. Trimming trees is really hard work and dangerous as well.

@JLeslie Where I live, the traffic is the same and probably even worse after 10:00 a.m. We have a lot of elderly people, shift workers and unemployed people who don’t even get out until then. It all depends where you live.

Even when we lived in the Chicago area, the traffic was always bad during the week .. never a good time for lane closures.

@JustPlainBarb well then your “rush hour” is a different time. Chicago and other northern cities it is more tricky as I think about it, because tree trimming and construction are done usually during non winter months, and so fewer months to do the work. But, northern cities also have more hours of daylight typically, especially evening hours, with some exceptions for cities in the extreme east of a time zone.

Here in NY, as soon as the weather gets nice (April or May) the tree trimming starts, and the road work starts. Winter we have risk of bad weather, nice weather we have road work being done. It’s like we can’t win!

Around this neck of the woods major roadwork is planned at night to avoid road congestion. It does avoid some congestion and honking during rush hour which is from 7:30am to 6pm.

The thing is about five thousand people live within the stretch from Battery Park to the Brooklyn Bridge. The people around here just love this night work policy. (NOT)

The crews will jackhammer the road open from around 8 or 9pm until… as long as it takes, then heavy machinery roars and beep-beeps to dig or fill, or whatever the heck it is this time, the rest of the night.

There is a RoadTec RX700 ‘Pavement Miller’ parked next to Battery Park for tonight’s activities. That sucker takes a few inches of pavement right off the top of the street and throws the chunks into a waiting dumptruck. All the streets around here get the treatment from one of these things every few years.

Woohoo! It’s enough to make you want to drink heavily.

Up here in Canada, the season for major roadwork projects is rather short. Where possible workers try to minimize the disruption to traffic flow, but the sections of roads that out out of service during the projects remain.
Except in emergency circumstances, tree trimming within city limits is usually restricted by noise by-laws.

If the workers start later and finish later, they’re going to catch the evening rush hour instead, which is no better. Like @dabbler says though, a lot of roadworks here are done at night, especially on urban motorways (not so much on residential streets, thank goodness).