Happy Thanksgiving!

On Wednesday, the Dispatch had an article about how terrible it is to travel and how you'll never get to your destination.

"You’re ready to hit the road for the holiday.

...

Heading toward Cleveland? Construction of a new Innerbelt Bridge has closed several downtown ramps along I-90, and there’s also construction on the same interstate in Lake County to the east.

Toledo? They’re working on I-475, which means lane restrictions and closed ramps in both directions.

Dayton? You’ll hit construction coming and going on I-70 through Clark County, and there are two work areas along I-75 in Montgomery County.

Cincinnati? Crews will get the holiday off, but restrictions remain in place along I-74 in Hamilton County."

Everyone, just calm down. You'll get to your destination eventually. Ride the posted speed limits or go at speeds of the traffic around you. Weaving in and out of traffic helps no one and this study has shown that speeding increases the risk of a crash. If you're running late, just call and tell people you're going to be late. Everyone would prefer you to get there safe and late rather than crashing because of speeding.

I've prepared two charts just to show how little you gain based on different speed. The first chart is minutes taken to drive distances at different speeds.

		Miles per Hour
		50	55	60	65	70	75
Miles	30	36.00	32.73	30.00	27.69	25.71	24.00
	60	72.00	65.45	60.00	55.38	51.43	48.00
	90	108.00	98.18	90.00	83.08	77.14	72.00
	120	144.00	130.91	120.00	110.77	102.86	96.00

The second chart is slightly convoluted. It shows the relative amount of time required to go at varying times. For example, going 50 MPH would take 1.5 times longer than going 75 MPH.

		Miles per Hour
		50	55	60	65	70	75
MPH	50	1.00	0.91	0.83	0.77	0.71	0.67
	55	1.10	1.00	0.92	0.85	0.79	0.73
	60	1.20	1.09	1.00	0.92	0.86	0.80
	65	1.30	1.18	1.08	1.00	0.93	0.87
	70	1.40	1.27	1.17	1.08	1.00	0.93
	75	1.50	1.36	1.25	1.15	1.07	1.0

Obviously, you will get at your destination quicker if you can maintain higher average speeds. The point I want to make is driving 75 MPH versus driving 65 MPH saves you only 7 minutes per 60 miles of commute. Speeding isn't worth it.

Just be careful folks and I hope you have a great Thanksgiving.

Next up: More maps fo' sho'

Cool link of the day: