The 7 Percent Solution

32% reduction in traffic from 7% loss of jobs...what up with that?

By Kevin T. Boyd
March 28, 2002

Recent local news reports informed South Bay Area residents of something we'd already noticed: Traffic is better since the dot-coms dot-bombed.

Recession eases South Bay commute

FREEWAY SPEEDS ARE UP; DRIVE TIMES ARE DOWN

By Gary Richards (Posted on Tue, Mar. 26, 2002)

Mercury News - Traffic jams eased by 32 percent last year on Santa Clara County freeways, the biggest one-year decline in nearly a decade and an indication of how hard the recession has hit the South Bay. >> Rest of article

As a daily commuter from South San Jose to Palo Alto, starting at the height of the dot-com boom, I definitely noticed the drop-off in traffic. What took about an hour when I started is now only 35 minutes. But where did the traffic go? The reduction seems disproportionate to the number of lost jobs.

My late, great friend Carl Neiburger would point out how easy it is to lie with numbers, but I took a look at Santa Clara County employment statistics for that period. From the height of the boom (based on low unemployment) in December 2000 to the bottom of the crash in October 2001, employment went from just over a million to a bit over 940 thousand jobs. That's a loss of 68,400 out of 1,012,600 jobs, or just under a seven percent loss. Versus the 32% reduction in traffic.

Why such a big difference? Some might say that in a recession, fewer people had spare time and money to drive around. I have a different theory: The seven percent that left the area and unburdened our freeways were, well, the word "idiots" comes to mind. To be a little kinder, perhaps we should say, these people were not averse to taking risks and not the most, ahem, "strategic" of thinkers. The highway and the information superhighway had a lot in common. So a little social Darwinism worked it's magic and made all the rest of our lives a little easier.

Our freeways would be much clearer if people would just be seven percent smarter. We need more and better commute alternatives, driver education, traffic enforcement and better road design to build on the effects of this "seven percent solution" to our recent traffic nightmares.

Kevin's 7 Rules of the Road

  1. Secure everything before driving, your load, passengers (especially children) and vehicle

  2. Focus on driving once your on the road; avoid or minimize distractions like cell phones, animated conversations, eating, grooming

  3. Share the road; be aware of other vehicles in all four directions; be considerate; get over yourself

  4. Learn how to "zipper": Vehicles in merging lanes flow together like a zipper; in Europe, it's the law

  5. Always use your turn signal to indicate your intentions, even though some assholes will take advantage and cut you off; always make way for people who signal

  6. Slower traffic to the right; going the speed limit doesn't excuse blocking the fast lane

  7. Avoid bunching up in any lane; move safely to the most open lane available to you; try to keep as much space between you and the car in front as the car in back

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