Gas-Roots Protest!
I am utterly fascinated with the gas-roots "Ride for the Constitution" trucker's protest planned for DC.
If you haven't heard, independent truck drivers intend to jam up the inner loop of the Washington I-495 Beltway for 3 days starting this Friday, by packing the three right lanes with semi trucks traveling at 55 mph. It's a shame I'll be out of town.
"Let's block traffic" protests usually cheese me off. Liberal groups have been doing 'em for decades. There's no better way to reach out to fellow citizens that may be sympathetic to your cause and convince them that you are an utter jackass than to clog up their daily commute. It's a terrible way to get your message across.
But I'm obsessed with this event, and not because of the goals that one crazy guy within the protest told the press. (They were hysterically wacky, and the organizers are pretty upset that they were reported as news) No, I'm obsessed by the logistics:
Math Problem #1: The Washington Beltway is a little over 64 miles, all the way around. A semi with trailer is about 80 feet long, and in a military open column convoy, the distance between vehicles is at least 300 feet. So they'd need about 890 trucks to fill each lane. Safely.
But the plan is to block all of the on ramps while circling at 55 mph, and 18-wheelers have poor acceleration. At that speed, the average DC yuppie in a Beemer can zip into that 300 foot gap without taking his eyes off of his iPhone. So the drivers will need to tailgate to... say 100 feet max. That'll require 1870 trucks per lane. There are reportedly 3000 drivers coming to the protest, so they 'll have to choose between filling three lanes to look good in the overhead photos, or filling one so that the locals don't cut them off and ignore them.
Math problem #2: The protest is planned to run for 3 days. A semi can do about 1000 miles without refuelling. 1000 miles/55mph = about 18 hours before each truck needs to refuel. There is exactly 1 truck stop by the Beltway (in Alexandria), and they may set the world's record for worst pump line this weekend.
Math Problem #3: Semi tanks are about 200 gallons. Assuming that Alexandria truck stop has an unusually large capacity, (100K gallons of diesel) they'll run dry after 500 fill ups - at best. They can try to restock with tanker trucks (9000 gallon capacity), but there's no way that they can keep up with demand. Which means hundreds of tractor-trailers will have to venture off to the smaller stations to find diesel.
This is going to be great. Isn't math fun?