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[Manzanita]

Okay, I wanted to share my somewhat weird results regarding my freeway commute to/from work versus an alternate low speed street route commute. None of this may surprise experienced Zero riders, but I'd like to hear comments.

When I take my freeway route, 70-80 mph is the norm, and I don't tuck or try to conserve energy. I tell people about my commute, "yeah, I'm on the freeway the entire time" as my house is like 1/2 mile away from the freeway onramp/offramp, and also at work, the freeway onramp is less than a mile from where I park.

But I feel like my commute time conflicts with this, because I have a 13 mile commute, and by calculation, 11 miles at 75 mph is less than 14 minutes on the freeway. When I time myself door-to-parking lot (and vis versa) my commute takes 20-21 minutes using the freeway. I expected the street route to take significantly longer, but no: I take about 28 minutes using the "street" route (it actually is a shorter straight-line distance versus the freeway route by maybe a mile). So I am really surprised how little time using the freeway saves me. My street route does have a fair number of intersections, I don't know if I've been getting lucky or what... but I am not trying to rush.

No surprise that my energy usage using the street route is much less. I typically use 18-20% of my charge taking the freeway route, but on my street route I use about 10-11% of the charge. So half the energy usage, and only 8 minutes longer of a commute! And also, I feel more grounded and less rushed when I take the street route. I don't know, I feel like I'm on a bike ride, and not rushing to work or rushing home (because I'm not!). And I can go at least 3 days without charging if I take the street route, whereas I have to charge every 2 days if I take the freeway.

It just seems weird. How can this be? 8 minute difference... I guess my true average speed on the freeway gets reduced to about 40 mph (13 miles in 20 minutes), whereas my true average speed on the street route is about 26 mph (12 miles in 28 minutes). So it's like the 1.5 miles in 6 minutes off the freeway on my "freeway" route reduces the time difference between these routes to something that seems almost trivial.

I guess 8 minutes is like a 40% increase in a 20 minute commute, but still... it's just 8 minutes...  I guess it just doesn't break a perceptual barrier that makes me think "man, that is way longer, what a waste of time!" Funny, huh?

[Doug S]

Arithmetically, that "only" 8 minutes is 40% of 20 minutes, so your commute mileage is shorter but takes 40% longer. Sounds about right to me.

I always take the freeway to work (~24 miles total for me), but often get off the freeway early on my way home to take some surface streets home. Same situation as you -- mileage is lower, time is longer but it's more restful.