Using the Bell Curve to beat traffic

March 15th, 2011

It’s interesting to see what happens when you apply a bell curve to human behaviour.

One I’ve noticed is traffic.

If I leave home at 7.00 am – traffic is bad.  If I leave home at 7.30 am traffic is bad.  If I leave at 8.00am… well I may as well stay home and have a coffee.

However if I leave at 7.20 the traffic is sweet and a quick breeze through, same at 6.55 (and a few other times I’ve tested).

My theory is this, we all set our alarms for the same times, 6.00, 6.15, 6.30, 7.30 etc.  Rounding up to the nearest 10 minutes or logical time.  What I do is set my alarm for obscure times 6.37, 6.40.

This means that at any point in time there is peak traffic generated from the 6.30 alarm, the 7.00 alarm.  If you catch that peak wave you have slow traffic like the rest.

Give it a try.

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