Speed estimates


Lately I have been doing some speed estimates for the EFC trip. Just doing some timings as I drive to and from work. This process was greatly enhanced by Carolyn finding my watch this morning.

I’ve kind of noticed lately that my speedometer has not accurately been reflecting my speed. Or, alternately, the odometer is not accurately capturing my distance travelled.

For instance, as I drove up 71 this morning, I set the trip odometer at milemarker 18.0 and started my stopwatch. Then when I got off the highway at milemarker 22.8, I stopped the stopwatch. I had set the cruise control at around 75, and the speedometer maintained itself at about 77 mph.

That’s 4.8 miles as measured both on my trip odometer and the blue milemarker signs (we have nice little tenth-mile marker signs here). The stopwatch had 3 minutes, 54.64 seconds. That is a speed of 73.64 mph, even though my speedometer never really wavered from 77. This is not a unique experience either – it seems like every time I make these calculations on Interstate speed, my actual results are 3-5 mph slower than my speedometer is showing.


2 responses to “Speed estimates”

  1. that’s probably good, since you’re SPEEDING up the ying yang. now, you feel good about going FAST, but really, you aren’t going as fast as you think, and are less likely to be pulled over and get a ticket

  2. Well, even though time is of the eseence for something like this – I don’t really want to be speeding too badly, since getting pulled over and getting a ticket would really stink, both from a monetary and a time perspective.

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