News, Why Return Trips Seem Shorter. (cycle, plane, flights, route)

[JD59]

Getting to a destination usually feels longer than heading back from it. Known as "the return trip effect," the popular wisdom has been that it seems to take less time to go the same distance because a person is now familiar with the route having traveled it before.

But a new study has found that familiarity and predictability might not be the reasons a return trip feels shorter.

The Body Odd - 'Return trip effect' isn't due to familiarity, says study

[irman]

Originally Posted by John1960

it seems to take less time to go the same distance because a person is now familiar with the route having traveled it before.
But a new study has found that familiarity and predictability might not be the reasons a return trip feels shorter.

I lived in the area where this person *van de Ven* lives, and we lived on the East side of the country and Grandpa lived on the west side of the country. About 100 some miles, as I recall ...
I must have made that trip on a bicycle at least 8 times, and I followed the same route each time.
Each time, the getting there (at Grandpa and Grandma), seemed way longer than coming home. That country is bloody flat, so nothing to do with up-hill or down-hill ...
So yes, I agree, nothing to do with familiarity to the route.
In essence after all that *studying*, he still does not know exactly *why* ...

Some of these *studies* are like what my Philosophy was a long time ago ..
If you want to waste time, do it in a productive manner !!

[M3 Mitch]

I listened to this on NPR. For whatever reason though, to me, the trip from the West Coast to Moscow or Kiev seems shorter going East. Given the Jet Stream, I think it is objectively shorter, but subjectively flying out into the night, managing to sleep at least a bit, then waking up the next day seems shorter than the return flight, which involves getting out of the bed at 0300 local time and flying into the sun, the plane about keeps up with the sun, so it's like 27 continuous hours of daylight...After making several Atlantic crossings, to me most any domestic trip seems short anyway.

[Vichel]

I have the opposite reaction when I take those excrutiatingly long flights from Oz to the US. It always feels much worse, like it's taking even longer coming back to Oz than going there. The last 3 or 4 hours are pure torture.