KUOW listener Richard Smith thought he knew the answer but wanted to be sure: What’s the worst day of the week for traffic?

Reporter David Hyde with our SoundQs team looked into that for him and brought the answer to a conversation with KUOW’s Kim Malcolm.

And the answer … (drum roll) … is …

Thursday. (Smith guessed right)

The explanation:

Hyde: Trevor Reed with Kirkland-based traffic data company Inrix says Thursday afternoons are the worst period of travel in the Seattle area, especially 4-6 p.m. You're going to spend more time in heavy traffic on a Thursday than any other day of the week, especially Thursday afternoon.

And it's not just in Seattle. Reed said that traffic everywhere pretty much in the entire world is terrible on Thursdays. So the good news is we're not alone.

Why Thursday?

Hyde: That's the the deeper, more interesting, more complicated question. Inrix doesn't have a chip in your brain explaining why you're deciding to get on the road on Thursday.

But here are some possible reasons: One is that some people are working four 10-hour days so they're taking Fridays off. Or if you want a three-day weekend, you're going to take Monday or a Friday off.

But it seems like Friday afternoons are the worst to be in traffic.

Hyde: Friday afternoons are definitely still bad, because you've got people leaving for the weekends. But Reid suggested that the departure times on Fridays are a little bit more spread out. So that's the difference between Thursday and Friday. Congestion is worse on a Thursday. But of course this week with Thanksgiving, everything is up in the air.