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First some background, to set the scene.

In March last year I entered a road bicycle race. Distance was 98 km and about 1700 metres of climbing, and it took me 5 hours and 10 minutes to complete. It felt like an incredibly long trip.

Two weeks ago I repeated the same course as a social ride, on the same roads with the same climbs. We took 5 hours and 20 minutes, but it felt far faster.

Question: Is there a name for this 'distorted' perception of time passing, when you travel a route for the second time?

Further info:

  • I've noticed this same change of perception on a return journey as opposed to a duplicate trip in the same direction

  • Distance between trips seems to be relatively irrelevant - a return trip would likely be on the same day, whereas my ride was almost a year apart.

  • The main feature is that the trip needs to be along a path that you have never travelled, meaning a road or track, a course or riverbed that is totally new to you. I have never experienced this on roads that I travelled as a child, (multiple decades ago) and have not travelled since.

  • The Vehicle seems fairly irrelevant. I've experienced it on bicycles, in cars/busses, and walking. For cars, it doesn't matter if I'm the driver or a passenger. Aeroplane travel does NOT evoke the same sensations, possibly because the scenery is distant maybe?

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  • I'll be repeating the race, under race conditions in another month. Will be interesting to see if the time-perception is shorter again, or the same as the second trip.
    – Criggie
    Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 6:55
  • The nearest search engine results were en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_perception which is possibly the closest answer, but ignores the variation when travelling the path the second time.
    – Criggie
    Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 7:06
  • 2
    Have you considered the fact that your second trip was a "social" one and so seemed shorter because time flies when you're having fun?
    – alwayslearning
    Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 18:08
  • @alwayslearning I'll tell you in a month, after the 2017 race is over.
    – Criggie
    Commented Feb 22, 2017 at 0:34
  • As a final update- the second race felt no longer or shorter than the second trip, despite being 25 minutes quicker than the first race and 35 minutes faster than the social trip. So the first trip is subjectively the longest and all later trips feel shorter.
    – Criggie
    Commented Mar 27, 2017 at 10:16

1 Answer 1

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Not a single word, but the phrase that seems to come up most consistently, is "The Well-Travelled Road Effect".

Here is an article describing it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_travelled_road_effect

Basically, the idea is that as you travel a road with greater familiarity, you zone out, or your mind is able to wander and not be so completely engaged on the details of the route. This gives you the perception that time has passed more quickly.

I have experienced this many times as an adult, when driving a particular route becomes second-nature, or so easily navigated that at times I become especially alert and say to myself "Where am I? I think I zoned out there for a while."

The reason we do not have this same perception as a child is that a child's awareness is more open to the newness of surroundings, even when those surroundings may not have changed much. So, on long car rides that we have taken many times, the kids will say "how much longer??" every time we go.

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  • Sounds good to me - A related feeling might be when undertaking a long car journey to another city, the time to travel to the edge of your city feels short too. However if you were planning on travelling to the edge of your city, it would feel longer.
    – Criggie
    Commented Feb 22, 2017 at 0:36
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    Very convincing. I'm imagining the neurons firing along a familiar path.
    – aparente001
    Commented Feb 22, 2017 at 4:27

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