tellhimfred.com

I decided to work half a day on Friday, as I’d been coming in to work early and leaving late. It’s always nice to have a few weekday hours free to run errands, so that’s just what I did.

I had solid plans for the evening: I was going to meet up with Tracey in her town, and we were going to grab dinner and check out The Departed.

A little background: According to Google Maps, from my door to my destination is exactly 27 miles. They estimate the trip to take 43 minutes. That would work out to be right if you’re averaging 62 mph and change.

Now, factor in Friday afternoon traffic, and we’ll say that adds about 15 minutes. Since it’s all highway driving, even if it is congested, it’s not too bad, right?

Wrong. Waaaaay off.

Instead of 43 minutes, let’s try more like a little over 2 hours. That’s triple the amount of time suggested. Triple. But let’s just say it took me exactly 2 hours. For 27 miles.

That averages out to: 22.5 miles per hour. On a 65 mph highway.

And here’s what infuriates me: The reason for the delay? There was an accident on the other side of the highway. As soon as I got past the accident, there was no traffic, and went from 20 mph to 60.

I just don’t get the rubberneck factor, and how that can cause such a huge delay. One a three lane highway, let’s say that each driver spends 4 seconds looking at the accident on the other side. For an hour long delay, you’d have to have 900 cars each causing a 4 second delay. Now I realize that is completely unscientific, as you can’t just mulitply out the number of seconds and apply that to each car. But it just goes to illustrate the ridiculousity (like that?) of the situation.

And when you’re looking at an accident, can’t you do it without slamming on your brakes? Or would you need to say to yourself: “Whoa, look over there. There are cars that apparently hit each other. I think I should slow down to a crawl so I can look over. I need to get a closer look at that.”

Now I’m sure this is sounding like I’m complaining, but I assure you I’m not. I just don’t get it. I really don’t. How does looking at something on the other side of the highway result in an hour delay?