A father's journey into relevance. 21st Century Dad...

My commute is about 30 miles each way. I leave home at around 6:45am, and arrive back at home around 5:30pm. The roads in the South San Francisco Bay Area are very busy at that time. So what are the odds of actually seeing the same car on the way into work, and on the way home?

I have on occasion recognized a personalized license plate I had seen a few days earlier. But the other day I actually was behind the same car both going to work and coming home. In both cases the sighting was on the expressway close to my home, so it was not the case that it was just a coworker with the same work hours. The other car's destination could be in a totally opposite direction for all I know. We just started out and ended up in the same space at the same time.

So if you figure out how many cars on the road during my commute time, and all the factors that result in someone being in a specific place at any one time, I would guess that the odds of being behind the same car both at the start of my morning commute and the end of the evening commute are pretty low. Or maybe it happens more often than we realize, but without personalized plates it's hard to notice.

For the record, the license plate read FOTEE9RS. Just one of the many variations I have seen from 49er fans.

And my kids will read this and say "Woopdeedo."