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Check out the Car Talk podcast from October 31st, 2009. At around 18:00 into the show, they discuss their producer’s bicycle commute to work, and the mystery of how he makes it to work faster when he rides during times of moderate traffic as opposed to times when there’s little or no traffic.
Anyone care to guess how traffic was helping him get to work faster?
Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, or download this episode (#0944) to find the answer at www.cartalk.com.
Because the cars on the road trip the lights so more of them are green? Therefore he doesn’t have to stop as often at red lights.
That’s a good guess, but in a city like Boston the traffic lights are on a regular timer rather than tripped. My guess is that he rides faster because is he’s keeping up with traffic. When he’s not surrounded by other vehicles, he takes it easy.
BTW, the car talk guys are A-OK. One of them even wrote a blurb promoting the book “Asphalt Nation.”
“BTW, the car talk guys are A-OK.”
QFT. They’re some of the few people I’ve heard, in the media or elsewhere, who seem capable of enjoying cars and car culture without denying the problems they cause and the need for alternatives.
skitching and motor pacing. when the traffic is moderate its moving slow enough to draft cars and grab on if your insane enough
I’m with freewheel – the adrenaline works.
As for downloading an hour of car talk for this – aak!
Surprisingly all four comments are a bit off the mark (but I like the idea of the adrenaline one).
When there is traffic, the cars get lined up at the stoplights. On a bike you can just slip between all the cars up till you get to the crosswalk. The light turns green and you start at the beginning of the pack. By the time you hit another light, some of the cars may have passed you, but not all, and then they just get stuck at the next light, and you pass even more cars.
I make it to class through Bordeaux in about 13 minutes, while it takes the tram 45 minutes and the cars about 30.
@smitty- I don’t think that the issue is the bike getting there faster than a car. I think it is that the guy – riding his bike – gets there faster when there is traffic than he does riding with no traffic.