Being Critical

Lindsey and I have lived here in New Germany since 2010. I have always taken Route One for anytime I have to go to Ebensburg or Altoona, or even now, when I go to work. It takes me roughly five minutes to get to the Sheetz.

Saturday, when Adam and Kayla picked us up to go to the airport, Adam believed that it would be better to go Route Two, which goes to Rt. 219 N, then you get off on Rt. 22 and hit Sheetz. Adam made a good point that it might be faster since it is mostly highway. The more I thought about it, the more I started to think he might be on to something.

Then I realized something. I can test this theory. Granted my test was not perfect, I mean I only went through each route once, but my results were interesting. So here we go:

Route One
Allow me to explain the major problem on this route: traffic. Ugh, I got behind three cars going so slow. It took me 5 minutes 49.8 seconds to get to Sheetz, which seemed a little longer than normal. It was 4.1 miles.

Route Two
I thought for sure this would beat the 5:49.8, since I would be able to hit the highway and ramp up to 75 MPH for the majority of it. I did not get behind any cars getting to the highway, but from our driveway to the highway it was almost three-quarters of a mile, and I had traveled in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. I was able to get going very fast (I may have even sped up to 80 MPH for a little bit), but that was not enough as my time was 6:20.3. And it turned out to be 5.6 miles. I thought for sure that it would farther, but not by much and the time saved would be worth it.

So it seems that my initial belief was correct. It never hurts though to challenge our beliefs and see if what we think is actually right. Lindsey pointed out that Route Two is probably better for bad snow days in the winter, since the highway gets plowed earlier and more often than New Germany Road. She is so smart!

Author: Ngewo