A Solid 4%

I will miss Furlough Fridays...

Traffic is so much nicer around here when our state workers aren't jostling with each other getting to downtown Sacramento from Elk Grove. It's a lot nicer for me on a bicycle, most certainly. My crude analysis (as crude as BP's estimation on the volume of their Deepwater Horizon well leak) is that my chance of dying has been reduced by a solid 4%. This includes time on the bus as well as when I'm being carpooled by my irresponsible driving neighbor.

Chances of dying, though, were 100% for a man yesterday morning on Highway 99 who, upon exiting to assist an accident ahead of him, was plowed into by an (alleged) drunk driver and was flipped over the median and into oncoming traffic. I rode the bicycle to work thinking of this death, wondering how many other people driving up Franklin Blvd. were drunk on their way into work. Methinks at least a few are each day.

I often say, rather callously but honestly, that I'm glad that many road fatalities occur on days I'm riding the bike. It is not a crime to want smooth flowing traffic on the days I'm being driven. We are so beholden to our precious automobiles that there's gonna be a whole lotta deaths whether I bike or not, so there's nothing wrong with not wanting to be stuck behind these things for hours.

Same thing goes for Furlough Fridays! I love them! I choose to work 5 days a week while all my co-workers do that 4-nines shed-jool, so I'm on the road more often and Friday's around here have become so much better. Back in 2006 and 2007 there was a very, very discernible difference in how traffic behaved on Fridays when everyone was employed, everyone was driving $41,000 rigs with $5,000 rims and $4,800 stereo systems (all financed, of course) and how the assholes driving them would blatantly feign running me down, would drive down the bike lane past the stacked line of cars to bolt past the intersection light. It was very clear to me as I'm forced to be sensitive to traffic -- lest I end up on the pavement, staring up at the catalytic converter of one of these beautiful rigs. Today, however, it's much nicer, as these rigs have [mostly] been repossessed, the assholes driving them are still unemployed, and state workers aren't grinding out as many commutes.

This is one of the few overlooked benefits of our little economic slowdown. And I'm here to point it out to 'ya...