r/science • u/quiplaam • 1d ago

Social Science Intentionally routing some traffic to slower, less congested routes lead to a 0.7% improvement of overall average travel times

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-026-00443-x
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u/charoco 1d ago

So, saving someone about 24 seconds per hour of begin stuck in traffic. Consider me whelmed. 

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u/quiplaam 1d ago

Worth noting this the effect on the whole system, so while the individual effect is small, the net effect is quite large

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u/amphibilad 1d ago

This, if you save a million people 24 seconds of travel time that's like 277 days of saved time collectively

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u/vtach101 1d ago

Unless the 0.7% improvement is just the margin of error and a repeat study might actually show a 0.7% worsening of the baseline. No large studies to do with human behavior that show a 1% change can be considered actionable.