Nobody likes going into the office on Mondays. But if you're trying to dodge traffic, that dreaded start to the workweek might be your best move, according to a new report on traffic congestion.
"Monday is hands down the least congested weekday," said David Schrank, a senior research scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). "It appears that that's likely because of workers who have a choice choosing to just stay home Mondays."
Schrank was lead author on TTI's 2025 Urban Mobility Report, which analyzed traffic delays across nearly 500 U.S. cities. The report found similar patterns nationwide. The worst traffic usually happens midweek, especially on Thursday afternoons.
In Austin, for example, traffic delays on Tuesday between 8 and 9 a.m. are almost twice as bad as Mondays during the same time period, according to an online data tool published with the report. San Antonio saw a similar difference. The Monday reduction in traffic was less pronounced in the Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth areas.
On those busier days, people are still driving, just not at the same times. Congestion now tends to be more spread through the middle of the day, making traditional morning and evening peaks flatter than before the pandemic.
"Maybe we're sending emails and working from the house till 8:30 or 9 [a.m.] and then driving in for those meetings that we need to have to satisfy whatever the requirements are," Shrank said. "As soon as our meetings are over, we're getting back and going home and finishing work from the house and avoiding the worst kind of traffic."
Fridays look different from city to city. In metro areas like Austin, Friday traffic tends to be worse than Mondays but better than Tuesday through Thursday. But in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio, Friday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. is the most congested hour of the week.
"Thursday has caught up to Friday nationally," Shrank said. "That may vary by city, but nationally Thursday has eked out Friday. And that's very different than we've ever seen."
Local survey data backs up those trends. Movability Austin, a transportation management association that encourages alternatives to driving alone, surveyed Central Texas workers on how often they travel to the office and which days they stay home.
"We have an exceptionally high work from home rate on Fridays. The second highest was Mondays," Movability Executive Director Lonny Stern said. "So we know that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, ... we should do our outreach with businesses encouraging people not to drive alone on those days."
But working from home is simply not an option for thousands of commuters. Even those with a hybrid work schedule may not get to choose which days they have to be at the office.
Stern said Austin's large share of office and tech jobs gives many workers flexibility that doesn't exist at the same rates elsewhere in Texas or even other parts of the Austin area.
"I would caution you that there are a lot of people who don't have the choice to work from home," Stern said. "So [remote work] isn't a solution to our traffic crisis. It's just one way to reduce some of the traffic on the road some days of the week."
