Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Analyzing your daily commute

Via Planetizen: I found this sort of interesting: a guy who lives and works on the northwest side of Houston performed a statistical analysis of his daily commute to work to see what variables affect his daily commute and how, if at all, he can minimize the time he spends in his car on his way to and from work everyday.

He discovers that two of the most relevant variables in his daily travel time are the day of the week - Friday's commutes are the quickest - and the area school district's calendar. Both of these observations make perfect sense; the popular 9/80 work week results in fewer people traveling to work on Fridays, and when school is in session there is more traffic due to the presence of faculty, staff, buses and carpool moms all commuting to and from school. He also discerns that the time in which he commutes is a factor; if he delays his trip to and from work by just 30 minutes, he could save up to 30 hours a year sitting in traffic.

I thought it was an interesting read. Most of us don't put this much thought and analysis into our daily commutes.

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