Comments on: Running to the subway — irrational or not?

By: Ken Houghton

Ken Houghton — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:04:46 +0000

I know that switch fairly well. Depending on where you came off the train, it’s a long time before you can see the 1 train. In which case, if your goal is to arrive as soon as possible, running is always the preference. (The effort is the same, and the power difference presents a health benefit–VERY marginal, but not zero.)

The question is what to do when your goal is another connexion with a more stable schedule (e.g., LIRR/NJ Transit/Metro-North). If you have thirty minutes to get to Penn Station from 59th Street and decided to switch from the D–it’s raining and you don’t want to walk the block from 6th Avenue–then there’s no intrinsic reason to run. You end up waiting either in Penn Station or on the downtown 59th Street subway platform.

Similarly, if you have no compensation in the morning for arriving five-ish minutes earlier, what reason is there to run in the first place?

By: Barry Margolin

Barry Margolin — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:07:11 +0000

In addition to the regret angle that Dan describes, I think there’s also an aversion to waste. If we always run, we run the risk that we exerted ourself for no reason. But if we see the train coming, we know that there’s a reason to run, so we’re not wasting our efford.

Or maybe it’s just laziness — we don’t want to do extra work if we don’t have to.

By: Headwellred

Headwellred — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:42:18 +0000

Dear AW
Would it be easier to leave the house a little earlier and catch the earlier train? (gaining more time with your son)so the walk is more relaxed and chatting is easier

By: Sébastien

Sébastien — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:50:56 +0000

Hello,

I bought the book at ebooks.com

I must confess that I wasn’t aware of these limitations and I skipped reading all the text before clicking on ‘checkout’ because I was expecting a standard PDF file.

As Jim said, Adobe does have support for all kind of OSes but they still have an unsolved issue with supporting Leopard (last OSX version from Apple); and, unfortunately I’m running Leopard.
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c054d0f

But, anyways, Dan, you’re right, I’m a bit stubbern but this shouldn’t keep me from reading a book which I expect to be source of pleasure.
I’ll give up on my 20 bucks but I won’t give up reading it in a digital format. Could you point me to a good online store where I could get the book in a more standard format ?

Thanks,
Sébastien

By: Jim German

Jim German — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:59:50 +0000

Sébastien,
Adobe makes there reader for a plethora of different platofmrs including, Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, AIX, Palm Os, Symbian, and HP-UX, so you should be able to read the book on pretty much any platform. (assuming of course you ahve a computer, although if you don’t I have to wonder why you bought an ebook in the first place)

By: jonathan smith

jonathan smith — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:18:12 +0000

AW,
a question or two before I weigh in. how often does the D train run? how about the 1 train? What time does your son’s school start? How long does it take to walk from your home to train D’s platform?

By: Xavi

Xavi — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:39:29 +0000

In the long run, when our commute is the same every day, the average wait is the time between two trains divided by 2.

By running when we see a train and catch it, we only make the average time decrease by a very small amount of time. This amount can be compared to the one saved by running just-in-case before approaching the platform.

Running in the platform is then like running in the street and it makes no sense to do it unless we enjoy running. Only where the frequency is very high would the average time be modified substantially, but then if the frequency is high waiting for the next train is not too bad.

But here is the irrational choice: Most of us run more times in the platform than we do in the street, even if this is dangerous and probably bad for us.

So AW’s son alternative would save more time because it involves more running. It would probably not make sense to do this either, but his creative thinking is very inspiring!

Let me know your thoughts, please. I may be wrong!

Take care,

Xavi

By: dan

dan — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:56:54 +0000

Hi Sébastien,

What a shame with the format. Can you tell me where you got it? Maybe there is a return policy?

This is very odd and frustrating.

The question for you is: are you looking at the wasted investment as a sunk cost and is this causing you not to get a book that you expect to enjoy?

best

Dan

By: Sébastien

Sébastien — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:19:09 +0000

Hello Dan,

Correct me if I’m missing the point but, it seems to me like another parameter is what we consider as the ideal train trip.

The ideal way to take the train is to have a timing between train 1 and train 2 which allows you to walk relax between the 2 train platforms.

if we start running just in case the train arrived earlier, we just make sure we never experience this ideal train trip… which makes me think that the walk-then-run approach is more rational than the run-just-in-case-then-walk one

Regards,
Sébastien

Out of scope :
Hey Dan, I’m also a big fan of your work, but I still didn’t get to read your book because I bought it in a silly Adobe format without carefully reading the ‘terms and agreements’.
Since I have no Windows computer, I just can’t get to read it
I’m not blaming you for this, but can you just tell me if there is anything I can do to convert this adobe digital edition format to something usable ?

By: Yechezkel Zilber

Yechezkel Zilber — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:59:01 +0000

Sometimes it is rational to run for a train when you see it coming.

1) The average person wants to save time. He would not run to save the time saved by running alone. But would run to save a higher amount of time.

When one has no information about the expected time of the train, the expected saved time is equal to time saved form running alone. He should not run – we do not run in midday to save time.

But when we see the train is about to come, the expected time saving from running is different from the time saved alone, because one has good chance to save the whole waiting period between trains. It dependents on various parameters, but many times it will be more than the time saved alone.

Therefore, when we observe the train is about to come, the expected time saving can be bigger.