
Why the Return Trip Feels Shorter Than the Way There - prostoalex
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/06/why-the-trip-back-always-feels-shorter/395714/
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mseebach
I wonder if the destination matters: Going to a fair or theme park, actually,
even going to work, most people would be preoccupied with anticipation and
planning, some sort of excitation, while going home, your mind is in a
reflective/contemplative/relaxed state. In the former state, you're more
acutely aware of not being there yet, while less so in the latter.

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kej
It's interesting that you mentioned theme parks, because the title reminded me
of the illusion created on Disneyland's Main Street by varying the heights of
the buildings. At the front of the park, the upper level is close to full
size, but as they get closer to the castle the upper floor shrinks.

As a result, the street looks longer as you enter the park full of excitement,
and shorter as you leave it exhausted at the end of the day.

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thekingofspain
I notice it very much when walking in my day to day life, although it also
happens in car rides. As some others have expressed, it feels to me like my
brain is more active and focused on the destination, whereas I'm more likely
tired and docile on my way back, slipping into the rhythm of the trip.
Specifically, I'm thinking of this in the context of a night out (alcohol or
not), where incredibly long walks are feasible on the way back. Obviously,
there are other psychological factors that influence perception at this point,
but I notice the exact same effects all the time, just slightly less
pronounced.

I also wonder about what I'll call the "Lifetime" effect. Consider how car
rides in general or long wait times at a doctors office start to feel shorter
as you grow up (infinitely long as a child, pleasantly short as an adult).
Intuitively, this is because of your life experience (or lack there of) and
the fraction of your life-to-date that any given wait takes up. The time
lengths stay relatively constant, while they progressively eat up a shrinking
percentage of your life-to-date. Perhaps this same effect could happen over
the course of a day, or a couple weeks, or an hour. The initial trip consists
of 100% of your experience thus far until you get there and subsequently turn
around, but at that point any task necessarily takes a smaller proportion of
the overall time than the initial trip felt like (and was) at the time.

Perhaps something like that would explain it as well.

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mavhc
Reminds me of a proposed explanation for
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion)

We think it's further away at the horizon, so should be smaller, but it's not
smaller, so we think it's closer, and therefore think it's bigger.

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rbanffy
I've been flying between Brazil and Europe a lot and I can tell you both ways
feel _very_ long.

Someone needs to resurrect the supersonic passenger carrier.

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TillE
I've put some serious thought into going the opposite direction, and reviving
dirigibles instead. Sort of a cruise ship experience, when you need to cross
the Atlantic but you're not in a particular hurry.

Unfortunately, I don't think the economics really work out. Except maybe as an
expensive novelty.

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rbanffy
Dirigibles are not particularly sturdy. I'd be worried to travel great
distances on one, specially in regions where bad weather is common.

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vinbreau
I used to make frequent 4.5 hour drives between Austin and S.E. Texas. The
drive home always feels twice as long, not shorter. There's an excitement
about the place I'm visiting and so the trip there feels quick. The drive home
is after the fun has been had and now I just want to be home as quickly as
possible. As a result that trip feels so much longer. My experience has always
been the opposite than demonstrated in the article.

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cc438
I think there is another effect at play during a return trip, at least for me.
I used to regularly tackle a 900 mile (1,800 mile roundtrip) haul between home
and college and it felt longer with each trip.

The trip felt longer as my familiarity with the route increased. I reached a
point where I knew _exactly_ how far I still had to travel at any point and
the close I got to my destination, the more frustrating it became. I'd feel
like I was on the home stretch as I knew my surroundings intimately but I'd
still have 1-2 hours left to go.

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vinbreau
Yeah, driving into Austin at night after being on the road for hours was like
this. We would see the lights of the city spread out across the horizon. It
would feel so close, yet we still had an hour drive ahead of us.

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reubenswartz
In dangerous situations, the brain works extra hard to process what's
happening, perhaps so you can deal with a similar situation later. This can
cause a "slow motion" effect, where your brain, by laying down memories more
"densely", slows the subjective passage of time.

I think a less extreme form of this may account for the return trip
phenomenon. I notice (very subjectively) that trips seem t take longer if: *
I'm stressed about getting there on time. * I'm going somewhere unfamiliar
(often the outbound part of a trip) * Either of the other 2, plus NOT using a
nav system to do the thinking for me, so I have to look for signs, landmarks,
etc.

In other words, the more actively your brain is involved in the drive, the
longer it seems to take.

These days, I can just put on a podcast, put the destination in my phone, and
feel like the trip barely took any time.

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quinndupont
A related effect I've noticed (perhaps a kind of "expectation" effect) is that
it seems to take much longer when travelling over uninteresting terrain. I've
recently moved from Toronto to a smaller city that seems to be one large
suburb and even though Google tells me the distances I now travel are less,
they _feel_ so much longer. I'm convinced this effect is due to visual
stimulation, a kind of time compression through distraction. This is why I
prefer travelling through a city, even if I'm not always travelling quickly.

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glaberficken
I've always wondered about this!

In my everyday experience I've always noticed a difference in this effect
between:

1) my normal home<>work commute (15 minutes by bike) I don't feel a
discernible difference in the time it takes (maybe because the trip to work is
downhill and effectively shorter than the return home, which is uphill. the
difference in speed compensating for the effect maybe?)

2) a holiday trip (100-200 Km by car) Here I definitely always feel the return
trip to be much shorter

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Vraxx
I wondered about my return trip while commuting on a bike and later used a
device to track speed, location, etc while riding and found that it was
actually about 6 minutes shorter because it was slightly downhill most of the
way (but not noticeable) and I was travelling faster for the duration.

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glaberficken
yeah definitely, non flat terrain, trips by bike are not the best to measure
this effect =)

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insulanian
Because the route is cached! :)

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spacemanmatt
I was thinking the jet stream at your tail actually does accelerate the return
trip quite a bit.

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mkagenius
Funny that yesterday I went to see new apartment for rent, the broker was
taking me to new places - the return trip did seem smaller.

Even as small as a staircase seemed way smaller when getting down. Analogy
could be of writing code with so much hard work (forward trip) and then doing
ctrl-a,delete (return trip!).

This could also be related to time passing fast when you are happy than you
are sad or worried.

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andreasklinger
Also works in coding: `Spike` and `Redo`

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teh_klev
The other thing I find peculiar, when driving, is why I can never remember any
details about journeys from A to B that take around 30-60 minutes. When I
arrive somewhere those last 60 minutes are just a complete blank.

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kstenerud
I never knew this was a thing. I haven't experienced it. Does it only happen
on vacation trips? Or does it also happen with, for example, commuting?

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jjaredsimpson
Happens to me nearly everywhere I go. I experience it daily on my commute and
even going to familiar places like family members houses.

The return always seems faster.

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baldfat
I have the opposite experience. I also didn't know it was a thing but I use to
always say the opposite to people and they would agree with me. Hmmmm

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babuskov
Me too. Getting to a holiday destination is always fun, easy and seems short.
Coming back home is boring and seems to take much longer.

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jpmoral
I only seem to feel this going to and from new places.

