Recession's Over!

I'll be looking toward the September new car sales figures here in another two weeks or so. I'm wondering if the August Cash for Clunkers has convinced several hundred thousand more Americans to perpetuate their new car debts this month...and next month...and the month after that. Are we back above the 11,000,000 new car sales threshold that Detroit needs to stay alive?

We might be. There is no finer sensitivity to the number of cars on Franklin Blvd. than by risking your life and riding your bicycle down it, and I'm not just finding the typical increase due to our kids returning to school -- there is a noticeable increase above and beyond just shuttling kids who should be walking or riding their own bikes. No, this measurement is an indicator of the state of the Elk Grovian Way Of Life -- the more we motor, the better our economy must be.

So my Franklin Blvd. is the arbiter of our economic state -- the increase in traffic is signaling that our recession is over!

With an improving jobs market or whatever is driving more people to be driving, out come the alpha males at Franklin and Consumnes River Blvd., driving their SUVs down the bicycle lane and pretending to make a right turn on red, only to gun it at the green and beat the stack of cars behind them:

During our recession, this dangerous activity was absent. My guess is that these people are as much assholes at work as well as on our public roads, and so as jobs are shed they are the first to be culled.

I did not witness this illegal, dangerous maneuver during the last twelve months, but it's coming back. It's a sign that our recession must be over. In that respect, I hope these green shoots of recovery are only that -- my hope is that our recession hangs on for years to come, if only to keep these drivers off the road.