Just realized my bus route shortcut was actually slower by 40 minutes

Been taking the 7:15 express through downtown Austin for a month now, thought I was saving time by skipping the transfer at the capital station. Turns out the express sits in construction traffic every single day, so I finally timed it against my old route on Tuesday and it took me 1 hour 50 minutes versus 1 hour 10 minutes. Anyone else discover their "faster" commute trick was a total dud after actually tracking it?

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jordanblack1d ago

Man, this hits hard. I used to be the type who'd swear my back roads shortcut was genius because it looked shorter on the map, but I never actually timed it for a week straight. Finally did it last month and realized I was adding like 15 minutes just to avoid one stoplight. It's wild how our brains pick the route that feels faster instead of the one that actually is, especially when traffic patterns change and we don't bother to re-check. Your post made me go back and track my own numbers again, so thanks for that, seriously. I guess the only real fix is breaking out the stopwatch for a few days and letting the data embarrass you into changing habits.