The Traffic Is Back In Silicon Valley... Is The Economy Back Too?

from the leading-indicators dept

Okay, forget all those economic numbers and forecasts and technical analysis crap. That all means nothing in predicting how the economy is going. Instead, just check out how crowded highway 101 is heading through Silicon Valley at rush hour. At least, that's the idea behind this article that brings up some anecdotal reports that traffic is getting worse - which many people are interpreting to mean that the jobs are coming back, too. They say the traffic feels just like it did when the dot coms started catching on. While there may be something to that (and I've heard others say the same thing), it certainly feels like people are just looking for any sign that things are picking up, and will latch onto anything. It's not quite trying to divining the future from animal entrails, but I wouldn't use it as the most definitive measure of economic life in the Valley.
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  1. identicon
    dorpus, 3 Oct 2003 @ 12:10am

    The Tracy crowd

    During the dot-com boom when middle-aged, middle-class programmers decided to buy their homes in places like Tracy or Livermore, they assumed that high-tech jobs would follow them there. That turned out not to be true, so now they get to spend 4 hours a day commuting to valley jobs.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    haruspex, 3 Oct 2003 @ 7:33am

    what do have against haruspices?

    It's not quite trying to divining the future from animal entrails

    Why are you mocking my job? It's a perfectly respectable profession.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Not a dot commer (but close), 3 Oct 2003 @ 9:50am

    San Jose unemployment rates

    Check this out http://www.venturi-staffing.com/ui/san_jose_city.shtml


    Among urban areas with a million or more people, San Jose and Portland, Ore., have the nation's highest unemployment rates

    And another one from last week http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2003/09/29/daily33.html

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    dorpus, 3 Oct 2003 @ 12:01pm

    The Newest Breed of White Trash

    Yeah, the Contra Costa species of white trash with college degrees, who live on the wrong side of the valley.

    Whatever happened to the homeless ex-software-engineer that made the headlines?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    msykes, 3 Oct 2003 @ 3:29pm

    Traffic

    Traffic is back because of Ikea, and the construction on the 101-85 interchange, at least around the Menlo Park -> Mountain View region. It's got nothing to do with any jobs, just construction and shopping.

    msykes

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Oct 2003 @ 12:45am

    unemployment == more traffic in the short run

    Here's the deal, with large populations of employed folks, you'll see three traffic spikes: one in the morning, one a lunch time and one for the return to your castle commute.

    With large populations of unemployed people, you'll see consistant heavy traffic as they all run around trying to fit as many possible interviews into their day.

    This will keep up through the first 8 to 10 months of the "jobless recovery". Once people realize the jobs aren't there for them any longer. They'll get on with their lives and find something else to do that doesn't require running around spending at least $10 to $20 a day to simply interview for non-existant position.

    The transition point will be marked by more people taking public transit and, finally, by more homeless people.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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