Well-traveled road effect

Tendency to think that travelling to an unfamiliar place has taken longer - but an equal time journey in very familiar route would feel shorter.

Cause

It is hypothesised that drivers use less cognitive effort when traversing familiar routes and therefore underestimate the time taken to traverse the familiar route.

Consequences

This effect creates errors when estimating the most efficient route to an unfamiliar destination, when one candidate route includes a familiar route, whilst the other candidate route includes no familiar routes.