Dipuce

switchtender: keep driving or take the train

It picks one of the two out loud each weekday morning as you come up on the split. Choose a morning below or build your own. The rule deciding it here is the same code the real service runs.

Open roads, a normal train. Nothing in the way.

keep driving 25 mintake the train 38 min

switchtender says

Keep driving

Keep driving. Driving is 25 minutes, the train is 38 minutes. You would arrive at 8:40 AM. Driving saves 13 minutes, more than the 6 needed, the road ahead is clear. Confidence is high. Keep driving.

Adjust the morning
What else is going on
Why

The margin

Driving has to save
5 × (1 + 3 × 0.05) = 5.8 minutes
Driving saves
38 by train − 25 by car = 13 minutes

Driving saves 13, more than the 5.8 it needs. Keep driving.

Confidence

1, with nothing taken off

1 is high (0.75 or more)

These penalties only change confidence. The choice comes from the margin alone.

What it does

On a weekday morning switchtender compares two ways into town: stay in the car, or park and ride the train. It checks the traffic, any crashes, planned closures, events, track work and rail alerts. Then it says one sentence: which way to go, why, and how sure it is.

Only the part ahead counts

The road you have already driven is the same whichever way you go, so switchtender leaves it out. It measures only the two legs after the split: the rest of the drive, and the ride in from the station.

Warnings move confidence only

A crash report, a game tonight or a missing data feed can lower how sure it is. None of them can flip the answer. That comes only from the two travel times and how jammed the road is.

Unknown is not clear

When the traffic reading doesn't come back, switchtender won't treat the road as empty. It falls back to the minimum margin, takes confidence down a notch, and says the road ahead is unknown.