I lived on the street next to a high school.

The primary entrance to both the high school and the rest of the neighborhood was appropriately named Funnel.

Getting out of the neighborhood was sometimes the longest part of my journey, and that was driving from the suburbs into downtown on a notoriously traffic ridden (and always under construction) freeway - they liked to close exits with little to no notice sometimes requiring massive rerouting. Was late a couple times because of that, but the traffic right at the start of the commute was the worst.

A combination of high schoolers who can't drive, and half asleep parents who need more caffeine or less kids - probably both - as well as pedestrians and kids on bikes. I don't know about your area, but cyclists in that area did not abide by traffic laws and no one stopped them, so they kept doing it. More than a few people died at that crossing in the ~5 years I lived there.

Thankfully, I usually only saw it bad on my way home in the morning (medical IT, I worked nights).

Covering some other shifts though? Whew, I had to leave at least 30 minutes earlier than I would for a night shift.