Malfunction Junction

Where any two interstates intersect you have Malfunction Junction, a place where cars slowly inch along the road.  Fortunately, I have the pleasure to drive a stretch of the brake light parade on a daily basis.  Although, I try my best to avoid it, every now and then I get stuck in it.

Out of curiosity, I’ve recorded my drive profile of my northbound trip on I-275 into Malfunction Junction, leaving work at various times.  This area spans the entrance ramp from Westshore Blvd to where I-275 branches eastbound to I-4, indicated in red on the map below.

Drive route, 4.59 miles

The drive profiles are recorded with a Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS watch designed which records time and distance information for runners.  The charts derived from this information display speed at minutes per mile instead of miles per hour.  So, a data point located towards the top of the graph indicates that I’m traveling slow.

For reference:

There’s data smoothing on the graphs; I’ll figure out how to disable that next week.  Thursday’s and Friday’s graphs are recorded at a higher resolution.

Monday, 8/4/2008. Enter: 6:44 p.m.  Average speed: 52.5 mph.  Drive time: 5:15.

Wednesday, 8/6/2008. Enter: 5:53 p.m.  Average speed: 22.6 mph.  Drive time: 12:12.  Of an important note, there was a large semi hauling used vehicles, and the driver wasn’t thrilled that I left a gap of three to four cars ahead of me.

Thursday, 8/7/2008. Enter: 7:47 p.m.  Average speed: 54.6 mph.  Drive time: 5:03.

Friday, 8/8/2008. Enter: 5:36 p.m.  Average speed:  23.3 mph.  Drive time: 11:49.