How many times while driving on the highway do other drivers fly pass you and you are going at or at least 10 mph over the posted speed limit? To me it happens very often that in a span of about five miles I believe about 25 or more cars would have passed me like I am hardly moving. When I see this, I often murmured to myself “Why are these people driving so fast when I know it will not make that much difference time wise”.
Driving faster does not save that much time unless you are driving extremely fast which will probably make matters worse for anyone, since this puts oneself at a higher chance of getting into accident or even not making it to your destination alive.
Numbers Don’t Lie
Before we can begin the calculations let me put out one very important assumption in place. All calculations are based on constant speed going from point A to point B. Of course, in the real world no one drives at constant speed, but it is much easier to calculate speed and other attributes of a moving object. Doing the calculations in the real world would require monitoring all the variables involved when we are traveling from point A to point B such as traffic movement, acceleration and deceleration rate intervals, rest stop breaks, etc. But I do not think any of this really matters because all the drivers on any given highway are generally affected for miles by the same variables.
Here’s a breakdown of speed, time and distance traveled:
Forbes also did an article about why speeding doesn’t shorten your commute: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/04/10/why-speeding-doesnt-shorten-your-commute/#624d68564fee