🚀 go-pugleaf

Some real numbers amusingly observed while stewing in my own juices on the DTR:

Time: 07:15 -- 07:55; ~40 minutes

Distance: From before the Fairfax County Parkway to the final toll plaza,
          say 8.5 miles.

Traffic condition: HOV lane - almost full speed (cars slower due to natural caution).
                   Non-HOV - bumper-to-bumper stop-and-go.

[an aside: Traffic condition prior to start of HOV: all lanes full speed.]

Some number crunching: Assume 53 linear feet per non-HOV-lane car. That's 100
                       cars per mile per lane. 2 Lanes. 8.5 miles.

                       That's about 2500 cars per hour, extrapolated out.

                       Each taking ~40 minutes rather than the "normal" 10.
                       That's city-gas-mileage, not highway.

                       In the HOV-lane, 130 vehicles pass during the same 40 minute
                       period. 74 are HOV-compliant, 56 are not. Assume they're all
                       HOV-compliant.

                       That's about 200 cars per hour, extrapolated out.

                       Each taking ~10 minutes. Each at highway-mileage efficiency.


Real numbers.

On another day (yesterday), 36 HOV-compliant pass, 13 non-HOV-compliant. Driving time
was ~35 minutes for non-HOV-lanes. Backed up distance was about a mile less due to speed
pickup near the main toll plaza (though the backup started before the FCP).

Real numbers.

Something isn't computing here; the new situation is BETTER for the environment? Even
over the LONG term?

Pooh.

Russ <Smith@ur-guh.com>
A consultant who pools with his consultant wife right now but won't soon and
can't easily with others who aren't strangers (and, as an aside, one who has
NEVER had a job which looked kindly on prompt departures from work for ANY
reason -- meetings always seem to overhang those 4 and 5 pm time boundaries).