Let it be released from the mind

Thursday, November 16, 2006

the rolling parking lot

How is it possible that I am able to see and remember a car I've seen on the beltway? In our rolling parking lot, on multiple occasions I have seen the same car a day apart, a week apart, etc. I think it's kinda miraculous. On the 64-mile beltway, there are about 225,000 cars a day that travel on it. Come along with me as I break this down further.

I drive on 1/4 of it for a total of two hours a day. That's a total of 32 miles (16 each way) in the two busiest hours of the day. I'm making this formula up but we'll weight the hours of 8-9 AM and 5-6 PM as the busiest and give them 3x the volume of other hours.

225,000 cars/4=56250 cars on my section of the beltway
56250/24 hours=2343 cars/hr.
2343 x 3 (add'l volume of traffic)=7031 cars with me on the beltway on my morning and afternoon commutes

Therefore, it seems quite amazing that I would sit in a pack/herd/slow-moving mass of cars and see the same car multiple times out of a total of 7,031 possibilities. I'm just saying...

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