Lunchtime Experiment
As a major thoroughfare in Cordova, I am on Germantown Parkway a lot. I am often frustrated by the seemingly excessive number of stoplights, and frequent observations that it usually takes an inordinate amount of time to travel a short distance. Yesterday, I was southbound on this traffic artery, travelling from Hwy 64 to Walnut Grove, and I decided to record a little data. Yep, it seems my disgust was warranted. The results:
5 miles, 16 stoplights, travel time: 11 minutes.
Now, let's do some math (Mr. Glisson would be SO proud):
16 stoplights / 5 miles = 3.2 stoplights/mile. I'm not sure how you get .2 stoplights, but you can't have 2.5 kids, either. We're talking statistical analysis here. If it makes you feel better, that's a stoplight every 1650 ft. On 6 lane road.
Now, I recall that Distance = (rate)(time) or D = r T. Plugging this in, we have
5 miles = (11 minutes) r
* Note: since I want a MPH calculation, 11 minutes is .18333 hours--email me if you wanna see my work.
5 miles = .18333r
r = 5/.18333
r = 27.27 MPH
Yes folks, my average speed for this trek was a whopping 27 MPH. Oh, would you like to know what the speed limit is on Germantown Pkwy? 50 MPH. That's like going 37 MPH on the interstate when the speed limit is 70. Uggh. But being that I work in Cordova, live in Cordova, go to church just outside of Cordova, and buy groceries/pet food/Middle Eastern delicacies in Cordova, there ain't much I can do about it. Except move out of Cordova. Don't think we haven't thought about it!
5 miles, 16 stoplights, travel time: 11 minutes.
Now, let's do some math (Mr. Glisson would be SO proud):
16 stoplights / 5 miles = 3.2 stoplights/mile. I'm not sure how you get .2 stoplights, but you can't have 2.5 kids, either. We're talking statistical analysis here. If it makes you feel better, that's a stoplight every 1650 ft. On 6 lane road.
Now, I recall that Distance = (rate)(time) or D = r T. Plugging this in, we have
5 miles = (11 minutes) r
* Note: since I want a MPH calculation, 11 minutes is .18333 hours--email me if you wanna see my work.
5 miles = .18333r
r = 5/.18333
r = 27.27 MPH
Yes folks, my average speed for this trek was a whopping 27 MPH. Oh, would you like to know what the speed limit is on Germantown Pkwy? 50 MPH. That's like going 37 MPH on the interstate when the speed limit is 70. Uggh. But being that I work in Cordova, live in Cordova, go to church just outside of Cordova, and buy groceries/pet food/Middle Eastern delicacies in Cordova, there ain't much I can do about it. Except move out of Cordova. Don't think we haven't thought about it!
posted by Eric C at 6:45 AM
2 Comments:
That road is getting worse and worse, so much so that all of the side roads are just as packed by people trying to avoid the lights and glut (yeah, I said glut) of traffic. I remember not 12 years ago driving down Germantown Road to play Farmington Golf Club or hang out at Paul's with traffic rare and lights sparse.
Ok, first off, that ain't bad!!! DC is 25 mph with an occasional 30 mph. There's red light cameras everywhere and speed cameras (permanent or in unmarked cars) all over the place. We live in Hyattsville, MD....if you do Mapquest, we live about 1.5 miles outside of DC. I work 6.05 miles from home (also mapquest) inside DC. There's no way in hell I would count the number of stop signs and lights, but it normally takes us 25 minutes into the city. At night, going home from work takes at least 40 minutes. Do your statistics on that! And yes, I work 9 blocks from the Capitol, so you can imagine when there's anything important going on, it takes even longer. That's why we had a day off for Inauguration. And the lovely searches of the vehicles around the Capitol is just a waste of time, money and resources. I have a big backpack with me, and they don't even search it. And there aren't dogs or electrical sensors for detection. Luckily, the delegate for DC put a stop to them closing more streets off. And the concrete barriers around the government buildings and blocking the streets are now painted a disgusting green! Our city gets prettier and prettier.
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