DAILY DIRT: MIZ…

ZOU! Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 945 of The Daily Dirt.

1. At times, does it seem like you spend forever in your car? 

Stop lights, bumper-to-bumper traffic, etc.? Well, that frustration you often feel is not imagined.

According to traffic analytics from the firm INRIX, Americans are spending an average of 51 hours a year simply stuck in traffic congestion, and that doesn’t even include the time you are using to look for things like, say, a parking spot. 

That 51-hour figure is generous, too. That is for ALL Americans. The ones who live in cities, like Chicago, spend an average of 155 hours-plus waiting for gridlocks to loosen.

And those delays are not cheap. Those 155 hours (and up) in places like Chicago add close to another $1,000 to your annual fuel costs.

The company that calculates these types of things, INRIX, has been doing so for 20 years. INRIX is a private company headquartered in Kirkland, Wash. It provides location-based data and analytics — such as real-time and historical traffic conditions, road safety, and parking availability — to automakers, businesses, cities and road authorities worldwide.

Want some good news? The time U.S. drivers lose to traffic delays is mild compared to many other countries. In Great Britain, fror example, drivers lose (at least) twice as much time as Americans trying to get from point A to point B.

2. Interestingly, there are only about 25 blimps remaining the world.

Those airships, and others like them (dirigibles, zeppelins), were once considered the future of human flight. But a series of disasters and the realization of limited use brought us to where we are today. The remaining “airships” of little use for anything outside floating advertisements and overhead shots of sporting events.

Airships are also expensive to construct and to run, in part because they require as much as $100,000 worth of helium per trip, and helium gas is the subject of frequent worldwide shortages. There’s also a dearth of people trained to fly them.

3. Mizzou fans, rejoice!

The Tigers are ranked among 2024’s top college football teams.

True, it’s only May, but for college football fans the season never ends. Here’s The Athletic’s post-spring practice top 10, plus a few others:

• 1. Ohio State: Buckeyes and Alabama enter the season tied for all-time best winning percentage at .734. Michigan is next at .733, a figure likely to drop once final NCAA ruling on the program’s alleged cheating scandal is handed down.
• 2. Georgia: In case you missed it, coach Kirby Smart is now making $13 million a year.
• 3. Oregon: The Ducks begin their first fall in The Big Ten. Yeah, it sounds weird to me, too.
• 4. Texas: How long before Arch Manning takes over at quarterback?
• 5. Notre Dame: Irish are virtually lock for AT LEAST a 10-2 regular season with a schedule that is — how do say? — favorable.
• 6. Ole Miss: Rebels won 11 games a year ago and are (at least) the second-best team in the SEC.
• 7. Alabama: Seriously, would you want to be Nick Saban’s successor, Kalen DeBoer?
• 8. Missouri: Has J. Robert Gough got his season tickets yet?
• 9. Michigan: Overrated. Way, way overrated.
• 10. Miami (Fla.): Oh, come on! The last time the Hurricanes were actually relevant was 2002.

Other selected teams:

• 11. Penn State
• 13. Oklahoma
• 18. Clemson
• 20. Iowa
• 23. Kansas

Steve Thought O’ The Day – Jack was nimble. Jack was quick. But Jack still couldn’t dodge Chuck Norris’s roundhouse kick.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Kansas? Well, maybe because of what’s left in that candy-ass Big XII…