Why the Return Trip Feels Shorter Than the Way There | Hacker News Reader

Why the Return Trip Feels Shorter Than the Way There

citylab.com

59 pointsprostoalex29 comments

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.

It's funny because I was just talking to my SO about this on the way home from a weekend at the beach. For us, it always feels longer on the way back. Heading to the beach (or any vacation) is all about getting excited about the trip and looking forward to having fun. It makes the trip feel shorter to me.

On the way home we're tired and worn out from travel and running around doing things. It's just a slog with boring old daily life at the other end. That lack of anticipation translates into a more negative attitude about the travel which in turn makes it feel longer.

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.

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.

Reminds me of a proposed explanation for 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.

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.

and yet only 100 years ago, it would've taken you months to travel across the continents to the otherside of the world...how quickly mentality changes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY58fiSK8E

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.

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

That's an interesting example that hadn't occurred to me while reading. Beyond the debate over destination/emotional state, I wonder if there is a limitation of how long the trip is? It seems that after a certain amount of time passes your frame of reference might not be precise enough for this effect to be noticeable.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Because the route is cached! :)

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

Wow, I'm impressed by that. As other siblings, I can also confirm that it happens to me in all spheres of life, whether it be a trip to the store next door to get some bread, or my work commute, or even long airplane rides and week-long vacations...

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

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