By The Numbers — Time Confetti Psychology
54 Seconds a Day: Why Our Brains Can't Do the Math on Speeding
Zoom out from traffic entirely into behavioral science — treat the study as a case study for a universal psychological bias, giving the story a shelf life beyond this news cycle.
Americans wildly overestimate how much time speeding actually saves—and drastically underestimate what it costs. The math, it turns out, doesn't add up the way our brains think it does.
ENTRIES008
SOURCES007
What Speeding Actually Buys
001
Time the average driver saves each day by speeding
26seconds
002
Extra time a typical driver would spend obeying speed limits
54seconds
003
Tons of carbon the U.S. would stop putting into the air each day in exchange
57K
Hours Bought, Years Paid
004
Driving time all drivers save together for each death on fast roads
2.74years
005
Years of life lost by car crash deaths annually
1.34million
Time You Give Away
006
Share of any car ride spent sitting at badly timed traffic lights
Source: INRIX research (via StateScoop)
7%
007
Time the average American driver spends every year hunting for a parking spot
Source: INRIX
17hours
008
Average time Netflix viewers spend per day just deciding what to watch
18minutes
Originating headlines: Fortune; Scientific American.