economics at 80mph

Today as I was coasting down the north side of the grapevine, I put my car into neutral and zig-zagged through cars, letting gravity take over and watching the speedometer climb. The thrill of the speed coupled with the fact that I was getting over 100mpg in neutral was enough to get me giddy. Ok not really giddy, but you get the idea. 50 miles later, I’m cruising along with a few cars sprinkled here and there on the long straight stretch of I-5, when suddenly I see the dreaded red taillights. Traffic.

Let me clarify the exact location for you so you get an idea of just how busy this place normally is. It’s 50 miles north of the grapevine. I’ve just passed Bakersfield, and the scenery is grass. Miles and miles of grass (and taillights). As we all slowed to a crawl, I had an opportunity to observe my fellow occupiers of I-5. every couple of minutes the lane next to mine would get faster and immediately, a few cars would switch over and it would then get slower than mine. Then a few cars would switch over to my lane, and that lane would speed up.

This traffic tango would go on for a few minutes, and since I had nothing better to do than watch cars go back and forth, I began to track them. The red ford fusion, the turquoise 525i, the baby blue Toyota highlander (license plate: FERDS…not sure what it meant either) and the bright bright purple scion TC (seriously bud, set fire to your car immediately and ask for insurance $$...you deserve a better color). As I tracked these four cars over the 3-4mile stretch of traffic, I noticed something weird take place. FERDS, the 525i, and the red ford fusion were switching back and forth everytime one of the lanes got faster (purple misery was too busy lamenting his color choice to bother switching lanes). Sometimes they got lucky, other times they made it in just as it was slowing. As I watched these cars, over the first half mile or so, they seemed to be making steady progress, getting to the point where I couldn’t even see 525i anymore. FERDS was still noticeable as it was an SUV and higher than some of the others. Over the next mile, their luck ran slower, and they began to lag. Everytime it seemed like they were about to get ahead the other lane would speed up. By the end of the 3 mile stretch, the three cars that exercised an active lane-change policy ended up in roughly the same spot as purple TC.

This trend on the open road is akin to the free market trending toward economic equilibrium. While a disequilibrium exists in the short run, and cars will move faster in one lane vs. another, various factors (demand for one lane or the other, available space in said lane, etc) will adjust itself over time and in the long run any disequilibrium (one lane being faster than the other) will soon disappear. This explains why the three cars that switch lanes will ultimately not be that much better off than Purple Misery.

So…moral of the story…stay in your lane. And to think...some people said I would go nuts being in a car by myself for 7hrs straight…ha!