Gawker Readers Post 16,000 Comments per Day

January's traffic magnets (MacWorld, CES, Scientology) were difficult acts to follow, but February made gains of its own. [Gawker Advertising]

FasTrak pushes more drivers into Ron Paul's embrace

"Bridge officials set to slam brakes on FasTrak cheats," a San Francisco Chronicle headline warns. But the article smells like a PR campaign to convince drivers who zip through the gateless toll booths without a pass that something very, very bad is about to happen to them. "FasTrak cheats could face late-night visits from folks who would boot their cars or tow them away." That's presuming FasTrak bureaucrats can get new legislation passed. Translation: The electronic toll-collection technology doesn't work as it was supposed to, and they can't fix it. FasTrak officials told the Chron they're trying to get California's state Franchise Tax Board to use its legal clout to collect unpaid bridge tolls for them. For that, I'm sure the Paultards would put FasTrak up against the wall right after the Federal Reserve System.

511 jammed by holiday traffic

OK, it's almost 2 p.m. on the Friday before Christmas. Time to do some last-minute shopping and head home, right? Maybe not. Traffic sucks even more than on most holiday weekends, thanks to an accident on 580 in Oakland. If you don't have one of those fancy GPS units that automatically updates you with the latest traffic reports, you can check Traffic.com before you leave work, or dial 511 from your cell once you're on the road. Oh wait, never mind! "We are currently experiencing technical difficulties on the 511 Phone System. We are working to solve the problem and apologize for any inconvenience." The worst part about sitting in traffic? Robert Scoble doesn't do podcasts, only video streams, so you can't keep yourself entertained with that. Here's our suggestion: drop "Here Comes Another Bubble" on your iPod before you head out. Catchy! And at least the lyrics are original! (Photo by AP/Ric Francis)

November Traffic

[Gawker Advertising]

No escape from Thanksgiving traffic

Stuck at work? Sorry to hear it. Valleywag's working a full day, so we'll keep you entertained. In fact, if you were thinking about leaving early to beat traffic, you might as well just stay at your desk. The Bay Area's major escape routes, 580-E towards Livermore and 101-N in Marin, are already clogged with Thanksgiving traffic.

ComScore says Facebook traffic dropped in September. We didn't think that was accurate. It turns out that traffic was only "down" because ComScore's measurement panel (along with Nielsen and others) only measures traffic from home. As students return to school, they are removed from the panel and traffic "drops." Facebook says that active monthly users is still rising at 3 percent a week, as it has since January 2007. [GigaOm]