Can changing your departure time reduce your commute?

Who doesn't hate, HATE, sitting in traffic? I certainly don't enjoy it and have significantly altered my work hours to avoid the 9-5 grind to and from the office. I haven't calculated the amount of time I save and due to the amount of sloth in me, will never get around to it. Fortunately, Brandon Hansen of Northwest Houston isn't such a lazy good for nothing like me. He has totally geeked out and analyzed how varying his departure time affects the length of his commute. We're talking chart and graphs with some mathematics thrown in to top it off. It's really good work. You may want to read his findings to help plan your commute and get a little bit of your day back.

Here is the Slashdot.org posting that alerted me to his study:

"OmniNerd has an interesting traffic article demonstrating how leaving early for work may cost you time. Brandon Hansen uses a year's worth of data collected on his urban drive to and from work along with statistical analysis to show the effects of varying departure times and considering external factors like nearby school districts' schedules. In the end, a minor shift in his departure time results in saving driving hours equivalent to over a third of the vacation time given annually by his employer."