Okay so I did some testing of my EFC route. One of my problems is that although I have estimated times for several different routes, I don’t have a very good way of determining if my estimates are accurate (other than driving and timing them). The way I do my estimates is that I classify each road I drive on as one of several different “types”, and then give each type an approximate average speed. For example, Interstates – 60 mph, Divided Hwys 50, State and US routes 40, etc. Then I multiply the distance * this average speed and add them all up and get my total estimate.

Anyways, I did some testing of a local portion of my route this afternoon. I am posting it here not only for your fun and amusement, but also to save it for posterity:

Got off 71 South at 11:12, with odometer ending in 7.5
Went straight at the offramp, curled around past Home Depot and turned right onto Fields Ertel Road. Drove on there for awhile, and passed Butler-Warren road (and thus into Butler county) at 11:17 (odometer 0.0). There was a business right there for my turning around convenience, and I was back on 71 south at 11:20 (1.9).

So total for the detour was 8 minutes and 4.4 miles, or approximately 33 mph. I had estimated 12 minutes for this (4 miles at 20 mph), so that’s good. I will point out that if I were to come the other way (from 71 northbound instead of southbound), I think it will take longer, as I’ll have to turn left off the off-ramp and then left onto Mason-Montgomery, and to get back on 71 north I’ll have to go past the 71S onramp, through the M-M intersection and then left across F-E. That might be a problem, especially at a high-traffic time.