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Journey time calculations in Google maps, Uber etc. mean no one I know is ever on time. If you need to be somewhere at 8:30 and the journey “takes 17 minutes”,

Journey time calculations in Google maps, Uber etc. mean no one I know is ever on time. If you need to be somewhere at 8:30 and the journey “takes 17 minutes”, one psychologically sets 8:13 as the deadline for leaving the house. You pick up your keys at 8:13, actually leave a few minutes later, hit traffic or take a wrong turn or two, and end up crossing the threshold at your destination fifteen minutes late. It’s no big deal and quite a grumpy old man thing to say, and I also don’t know if tech is the root cause, but squeezing travel into unrealistically small and algorithmically created windows of time has killed most people’s sense of punctuality, including mine if I’m not careful.

trianglem 7y ago
I feel exactly the opposite. Google's estimates are usually accurate down to a couple of minutes for me.
cheschire 7y ago
Yeah I wish there was a "door-to-door" buffer that was enabled by default. I don't think a lot of people are ever taught the concept of backwards planning.
busterarm 7y ago
My Uber estimates usually end up being half as long as the trip actually takes in NYC anyway.
fouc 7y ago
I always have to buffer it, but I never quite know how much to buffer. Usually I add 5-10 minutes to the number. Or round it up.
winrid 7y ago
Google should calibrate it by how long it takes to leave your house :)
- tlrobinson 7y ago
  Or cross reference calendar events with directions lookups and actual arrival times, and if you’re consistently late then overestimate the time.
basq 7y ago
Additionally those time estimates aren't always accurate. I used to do deliveries all over my county using gmaps, and it was usually 5 minutes off, even as much as 10 minutes off for some of the further destinations.
- remus 7y ago
  That's interesting, as for me it's eerily accurate and consistently gets it right within a minute or two for short journeys and within 5 to 10 mins for longer journeys (3± hrs). I guess it could be pretty location specific?
pbosko 7y ago
Google's estimation for my country is always less than what is achievable if you stick to the speed limit. I guess they calculate it based on other drivers.
- alecco 7y ago
  I recently rushed to catch public transport earlier than the one in the Google Maps trip and now all trips estimate my walking time as running time.
- onion2k 7y ago
  In practical terms speeding actually makes very little difference to your journey time. Eg if you have a 100 mile drive on a 70mph road and you drive the entire way at 85mph your reward is saving about 10 minutes on a 1.5 hour trip. The downside risk is getting charged for speeding and being delayed for much more than 10 minutes. I've never though the cost/benefit shows it to be particularly worthwhile.
  - FDSGSG 7y ago
    There are exceptions to this though. If you're driving through Europe at night you can easily spend most of your trip on highways safely going 180kmh or faster, saving you many hours on longer trips.
    - Aeolos 7y ago
      180kmh at night is definitely not safe on a highway. Even with perfect visibility during daytime, anything above 150-160kmh is pushing it for most of the highways I've traveled in Europe.
      - FDSGSG 7y ago
        How come? The roads themselves certainly aren't the limiting factor, often you could go even faster. > anything above 150-160kmh is pushing it for most of the highways I've traveled in Europe Anything above 150-160kmh is certainly pushing it for most cars, the highways themselves tend to be fine for even faster speeds. There's a vast difference between speeding in a WV Polo and a BMW 7series, it's downright terrifying to go 160 in the Polo but the BMW won't start shaking like that even at 260. I drive between Barcelona and Berlin pretty regularly, sometimes I go all the way to Bucharest. There are definitely stretches of road on those routes where you can't go fast in low traffic conditions, but they're in the minority.
lordnacho 7y ago
I'd guess it isn't because of specific services like Google, but the fact that you can now say "I'll be 5 mins late" while you're on the way. People used to not be contactable until the appointed time, now it feels like you're already there with them.
- jaclaz 7y ago
  And this gets us back to the classic xkcd: https://xkcd.com/612/ https://xkcd.com/612/
jkoudys 7y ago
The plus side is that I can kill time on my phone while I wait for late people to arrive.

trianglem 7y ago

I feel exactly the opposite. Google's estimates are usually accurate down to a couple of minutes for me.

cheschire 7y ago

Yeah I wish there was a "door-to-door" buffer that was enabled by default. I don't think a lot of people are ever taught the concept of backwards planning.

busterarm 7y ago

My Uber estimates usually end up being half as long as the trip actually takes in NYC anyway.

fouc 7y ago

I always have to buffer it, but I never quite know how much to buffer. Usually I add 5-10 minutes to the number. Or round it up.

winrid 7y ago

Google should calibrate it by how long it takes to leave your house :)

tlrobinson 7y ago
Or cross reference calendar events with directions lookups and actual arrival times, and if you’re consistently late then overestimate the time.

basq 7y ago

Additionally those time estimates aren't always accurate. I used to do deliveries all over my county using gmaps, and it was usually 5 minutes off, even as much as 10 minutes off for some of the further destinations.

remus 7y ago
That's interesting, as for me it's eerily accurate and consistently gets it right within a minute or two for short journeys and within 5 to 10 mins for longer journeys (3± hrs). I guess it could be pretty location specific?

pbosko 7y ago

Google's estimation for my country is always less than what is achievable if you stick to the speed limit. I guess they calculate it based on other drivers.

alecco 7y ago
I recently rushed to catch public transport earlier than the one in the Google Maps trip and now all trips estimate my walking time as running time.
onion2k 7y ago
In practical terms speeding actually makes very little difference to your journey time. Eg if you have a 100 mile drive on a 70mph road and you drive the entire way at 85mph your reward is saving about 10 minutes on a 1.5 hour trip. The downside risk is getting charged for speeding and being delayed for much more than 10 minutes. I've never though the cost/benefit shows it to be particularly worthwhile.
- FDSGSG 7y ago
  There are exceptions to this though. If you're driving through Europe at night you can easily spend most of your trip on highways safely going 180kmh or faster, saving you many hours on longer trips.
  - Aeolos 7y ago
    180kmh at night is definitely not safe on a highway. Even with perfect visibility during daytime, anything above 150-160kmh is pushing it for most of the highways I've traveled in Europe.
    - FDSGSG 7y ago
      How come? The roads themselves certainly aren't the limiting factor, often you could go even faster. > anything above 150-160kmh is pushing it for most of the highways I've traveled in Europe Anything above 150-160kmh is certainly pushing it for most cars, the highways themselves tend to be fine for even faster speeds. There's a vast difference between speeding in a WV Polo and a BMW 7series, it's downright terrifying to go 160 in the Polo but the BMW won't start shaking like that even at 260. I drive between Barcelona and Berlin pretty regularly, sometimes I go all the way to Bucharest. There are definitely stretches of road on those routes where you can't go fast in low traffic conditions, but they're in the minority.

lordnacho 7y ago

I'd guess it isn't because of specific services like Google, but the fact that you can now say "I'll be 5 mins late" while you're on the way. People used to not be contactable until the appointed time, now it feels like you're already there with them.

jaclaz 7y ago
And this gets us back to the classic xkcd: https://xkcd.com/612/ https://xkcd.com/612/

jkoudys 7y ago

The plus side is that I can kill time on my phone while I wait for late people to arrive.