I believe buck
, in this context, means fight
. So this would mean fighting traffic. When one refers to traffic, it can be described as having a flow
, so to fight it would be to go against it. Or, it could be that you are stuck in traffic and fighting to get through the jam.
EDIT:
Here is an example:
Person 1: Anywhere you go during rush hour, traffic will be bad.
Person 2: Since I am coming from the south I will be bucking traffic
In this example, traffic is expected to be bad regardless of the direction you are going, as stated by person one. Person 2 is reasoning that since they are essentially participating in a "reverse commute", i.e leaving the suburbs and heading back to the central district, they will be bucking traffic
.
In this context it is being used more in the sense of "going against the flow", like one would be "bucking current" as they swam upriver.
/EDIT
Where did it come from and what does it mean?
Best Answer
'Bucking' as opposing
The phrases "buck traffic" and "buck a trend" are examples of the verb buck used in the sense 1(b) below (from Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary):
The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (1993) has this entry for buck in the relevant sense:
The word also appears in J.S. Farmer & W.E. Henley, Slang & Its Analogues (1890):
'Bucking traffic' as 'recklessly going the wrong way'
The earliest matches for "bucking traffic" are from the first quarter of the twentieth century. The earliest sense of "buck traffic" seems to have been "to go against posted traffic right-of-ways. From the [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] Public Ledger (November 11, 1919):
From the [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] Evening Public Ledger (January 21, 1921):
From "Father M'Dermott Is Hurt by Trolley at 4th and Market," in the [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] Evening Public Ledger (February 24, 1922):
From "Problems to Solve," in the Washington [D.C.] Herald (November 7, 1922):
From "P.R.T. Turnback Called Nuisance," in the [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] Evening Public Ledger (November 29, 1922):
From Philadelphia Traffic Survey: Report – Issues 1–7 (1929) [combined snippets]:
And from "Traffic Hazards in Philadelphia," in Keystone Motorist (1930):
From Fire Engineering, volume 84 (1931):
As these examples indicate, early use of the phrase is unusually concentrated in the city of Philadelphia, and the sense of the term is not simply "going against the general flow of traffic," but "going against traffic signals or instructions" and even more specifically "going the wrong way on a one-way street." This suggests a notion of head-on collisions as vehicles butting heads.
The early, very narrow sense of "bucking traffic" persists in some Google Books matches at least as late as 1959. From Toledo City Journal (1959) [combined snippets]:
'Bucking traffic' as 'crossing into oncoming traffic in order to pass a vehicle'
Even in the 1920s, some sources used "buck traffic" in the sense of "go against oncoming traffic" without necessarily implying a violation of traffic regulations. From Delaware State Highway Department, A Report of the State Highway Department of the State of Delaware, 1917–1926 (1926[?]) [combined snippets]:
From Bus Transportation, volume 8 (1929) [combined snippets]:
From The American City, volume 42 (1930) [combined snippets]:
From Rogers v. Moody, 430 Pa. 121 (May 21, 1968), a case that arose in connection with a traffic accident in Philadelphia:
'Bucking traffic' as 'driving through congested streets'
From Michigan Roads & Construction, volume 39 (1942):
From The Catholic Digest, volume 15 (1951) [combined snippets]:
From National Safety Council, Transactions of the National Safety Congress (1957) [combined snippets]:
Why do motorists buck traffic? When a traffic light turns there is an open space in the oncoming lane. If a motorist intends to turn at the corner, the easy, safe path is through the station and the motorist takes this path. Bucking traffic is directly related to the second general principle namely, that the motorist will select the easiest and safest path.
From Ohio Cities and Villages, volumes 5–6 (1957[?]) [combined snippets]:
From Landscape Architecture, volumes 48–49 (1959[?]) [combined snippets]:
From Réalités, issues 260-265 (1972) [combined snippets]:
From Meni Koslowsky, Avraham Kluger & Mordechai Reich, Commuting Stress: Causes, Effects and Methods of Coping (1995):
From John Simonds, Landscape Architecture: A Manual of Site Planning and Design (1998) [combined snippets]:
Conclusions
Since at least 1846, buck has had the informal (but now standard) meaning "to defy, resist, or oppose." When the phrase "bucking traffic" first arose (by 1919), it seems to have referred to disobeying traffic indicators—semaphores or traffic signs—and in particular referred to going the wrong way on a one-way street. An allied meaning soon arose: crossing into oncoming traffic in order to pass a car or other vehicle in front of one's vehicle. This could be lawful (if done cautiously) or unlawful (if done recklessly). A final stage in the evolution of the term evidently arose by 1942, conveying the sense of simply fighting heavy traffic, whether one is in one's proper lane or not.