08 July 2009

Silver Lining In Our Shitty Economic Cloud

Woohoo, Less Traffic

Even though we'll probably be resorting to cannibalism by the end of Obama's first term, at least the freeways remain empty as people sit at home unemployed eating pork and beans. From AP:
The Los Angeles metropolitan area, with its car pool lanes and emerging mass transit, shed two hours of wait-time in rush-hour traffic. Still, its sprawling freeway system remained the nation's worst for congestion, with drivers wasting an average of 70 hours in 2007.

Other large metro areas showing congestion declines were San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Seattle.

In contrast, the Washington, D.C., area had more bumper-to-bumper traffic, surpassing Atlanta as the second worst in congestion. With the Washington regional economy faring relatively well, drivers heading to work in the nation's capital and surrounding suburbs wasted 62 hours in rush-hour traffic in 2007, up from 59 hours.
Of course DC traffic remains a mess of commuters which can be explained by John Dillinger's famous quote of "because that's where the money is!". Never accuse the sleazebags in our federal government of misunderstanding their priorities of lavishing themselves with taxpayer-funded goodies while everyone else is in the poor house.

3 comments:

Lisa said...

The Times reported this week that Detroit could become the next big bicycling mecca because -- the streets are vacant! That is, as long as you don't mind peddling past mounds of detritus. . .

Woohoo! Life is good. Praise be to Allah.

Average American said...

It's not at all surprising that DC is bustling with traffic. The government is the only big employer that has NOT had to lay anyone off. They have been HIRING! Can you say "porkulus,er, I mean stimulus?"

NateSF said...

San Francisco is what some people in the immigration debate call a "sanctuary city", meaning they don't deport illegal aliens they find here unless they are involved in a crime. Last year I used to see lots shit-box trucks stacked high with scrap metal, cardboard and other miscellaneous junk on the bay area freeways being driven by what looked like people straight out of rural Mexico. I'd see either a breakdown, accident, or combination of the two involving these jalopies practically on a daily basis, and it wouldn't surprise me that most of these people were illegal immigrants without drivers licenses.

This year I hardly see any of these vehicles on the roads, and traffic has been much better. I guess people are recycling for themselves and putting these menaces to public safety off the roads! I LOVE THIS RECESSION!