Measuring the Efficiency of the National Highway System Via Google Maps

In the interests of cataloging the tremendous feats of engineering pioneered by past generations, I have taken it upon myself to conduct a short and meaningless study.  It works like this:

1) Use Google Maps to plan spring break trip with significant other.

2) Pick a significantly distant city.  For my study, I've used Philadelphia (to Miami University).

3) Note the drive time and quantity of turns you've been instructed to make.  For my example, I got ~19.5 hours and 33 turns.

4) Now, turn on the 'Avoid Highways' option and note the drive and turn numbers again: 31 hours and 146 turns.

5) Rinse and repeat.

Some things to consider:

• Imagine highways didn't exist.  How would your life be different?

• Each time a car makes a turn, it has to (essentially) stop, execute the turn, and re-accelerate.  Each of these loses efficiency.

• Not all turns or merges have this qualification.

• Highways are more expensive to build and require different maintenance than surface streets.

• The speed limit is higher on highways than on surface streets.

• Congestion on highways often eliminates, at least periodically and somewhat substantially, some of their benefits.

• Cars often are more efficient at higher speeds.

• Highways are often funded federally.

• Surface streets are oftentimes more 'personal' than highways. (ie: You can't stop at a neighborhood diner on a spur of the moment when you drive on a highway unless you are previously aware of its location.)

• Some have preferences one over the other that are difficult to quantify here.

Just a thought I had.