How to Eliminate Traffic Jams and Reduce Automotive Crashes, Deaths, Injuries, Operating Expenses, Time Wasted, Irritation, and Make Motoring FUN Again

It's easy. It's easy! All we have to do is . . . restore our Right to Travel, our Right to Freely Associate with each other and restore a bunch of other Rights and encourage voluntarism and competition and abolish monopolies and minimize prohibition and compulsion.

Twice a day traffic jams of nearly empty cars pollute the air. Five or six passenger cars contain a single irritated person wasting time. What can we do about it? Start with a clean sheet of paper. How do we achieve fewer cars on the road with more passengers in them? Car-pooling isn't popular; why not? Too regimented, with schedules. Why not make it more voluntary? Begin by exorcizing a demon - the "h" word. A demon created by a second demon - one in human form: J. Edgar Hoover.

We have the Right to Travel and the Right to Freely Associate with each other. What if people were to request rides and other people were to offer rides? We could do it in bus stops or other safe locations where drivers could pull off the roadway. We need a symbol - the outline of a hand with a thumb out on an environmentally correct background - GREEN.

We shouldn't use the "h" word because people have been brain-polluted into hating and fearing it. Their Invisible Shield goes up and they react as if they'd seen Dracula. Let's call it ShairRide. We the People have a Right to do it. We have a Duty to do it. Once upon a time hitchhiking was not only tolerated and accepted, IT WAS MANDATORY. During World War II it was against the law NOT to pick up a hitchhiker. Fuel was rationed. Hitchhiking was sensible and patriotic. It is now illegal not to pick up a hitchhiker on the AlCan (Alaska-Canada) Highway, because people can freeze to death out there.

Dangerous? According to statistics, the majority of victims of violent crime know their attacker, so statistically you are safer with -a stranger! Both of you are on your good behavior and probably have your defensive weapons - chemical spray or whatever. (Have you seen that Pepper Foam Mace? Impressive!) You have an opportunity to communicate and possibly start a friendship.

You're not convinced? In this society that's understandable. You'd like more assurance? First assurance is that nothing is perfect. All we can hope to do is keep problems to a minimum. How about a purely voluntary Good Guy Card, attesting that the bearer is not a wanted criminal. It has plenty of flaws but if it's purely voluntary and doesn't cost the government anything, and will get more people into fewer cars, let's try it!

People in the rest of the world hitchhike. In sparsely populated areas in Sweden people leave their keys in their cars because someone might need it in an emergency. In Ireland people won't stop if they are near their destination and the hitcher has a long way to go but will apologize for not picking you up. In Poland coupons and lotteries with cash prizes encouraged it. In Israel they have hitching stops. Only here in the "Land of the Free" are people persecuted for doing it.

Let's say Fuck You Asshole! to prohibition and Thumbs Up to Thumbs Out!

Our cars are now much safer than they were a few years ago, although there is still room for some improvement. We could have done it without the government's interference in a society where people understand rational self-interest and the power of a boycott. However, we don't have a libertarian society so I will give the government credit for forcing the car makers to make improvements.

There is much more room for improvement in other areas: operator training, street and highway design and maintenance, insurance and traffic signs. The latter is where I personally have been focusing because it is an area where it is possible to produce a lot of benefit with relatively little effort and expense. I'm tired of getting lost! And I'm tired of giving directions to people who can't even understand them! How much would it be worth to you to save much of the time and avoid the frustration you now suffer?

THE ONLY THING INSURANCE INSURES IS PROFITS FOR THE INSURANCE CORPORATIONS. Everyone has horror stories about them. Let's start with a clean sheet of paper and rethink insurance.

Operator training appears to be the area where the greatest reduction in crashes, deaths and injuries is possible. Three areas here: bikers (also known as motorcyclists), truckers and bus drivers and other professionals, and automobile operators. We bikers try to take care of our own with rider training programs. We've reduced deaths by 50 percent in the past ten years. We can do even better and will. We have the statistics to prove that injured riders are no more of a burden to society than anyone else. Even so, we are working on establishing our own medical insurance plan to totally eliminate that argument. Professional drivers have schools and commercial license tests. "Cagers" - "four wheelers" - automobile drivers - learn the basics from a relative or friend or in public school or a commercial driving school - usually just enough to pass a basic test by the state. Far too many of them learn nothing more in the next fifty or more years they drive. The vast majority of them are accidents waiting to happen.

Forty to fifty thousand deaths per year, a million or more injuries, a billion (maybe billions and billions of) dollar$ wasted every year! WE CAN REDUCE THAT! I recall the obituary of a young woman who lost control of her car on the way home after passing her driving test. She wandered onto the shoulder and overcompensated, something an experienced driver would know how to react to.

How do we pass on our experience? Arthur C. Clarke, best known as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, said "Any teacher who can be replaced by a machine, SHOULD BE." Airline pilots are trained on flight simulators. We have similar technology and Virtual Reality. We can produce sophisticated simulators where students can achieve high levels of competence with recognition and Certificates of Proficiency. The tests would include "can't win" situations because . . . life is that way. Star Trek enthusiasts will recall the Kobiashi Maru.

Require competence in map reading to get or renew a Certificate of Proficiency. Motorists should have the sense to carry a map just as they should carry emergency equipment. Failure to have a map in one's possession is proof of stupidity.

Include in the training and use other methods to educate motorists that A GREEN LIGHT IS NOT AN ORDER TO CROSS AN INTERSECTION - IT IS MERELY PERMISSION TO CROSS - IF IT IS SAFE TO DO SO.

Tests will be given in the English, that is, American language. Attempts to create a "Universal Language" on signs with pictures instead of words have so far often been understood by no one. It is absurd and unreasonable to expect signs in all of the over one hundred languages used in this country and just as unreasonable to give tests in all those languages.

These tests would be voluntary beyond the basics. If wimps want to creep along in the slow lane, OK. Just STAY OUT OF THE FAST LANES! and DON'T CAUSE ACCIDENTS. For the rest of us, let's start with these. In the `thirties Formula One Grand Prix driver Rudi Caracciola was known as the Rainmaster - Regenmeister. In the `sixties Eric Carlson won frequently in rallies on ice and snow. Eismeister und Schneemeister. For truckers - Hammer Down! For bikers - Wide Open Throttle! For anyone who earned ALL the Certificates - UNLIMITED!

Every year about six thousand - 6,000- SIX THOUSAND - pedestrains are killed in America. Sometimes it's their fault; sometimes it's the vehicle operator's fault. Wearing dark clothing at night in high risk areas is stupid. Publicizing this and the gruesome mangling of some victims would help. So would simulation of impact in training sessions. I recall a friend's picturesque description of a victim who landed on the windshild, face toward the driver. Some pedestrian deaths and some driver deaths in single vehicle crashes are suicides. A more realistic attitude about "moving on" (death), with facilities for doing so (places where suicide was accomodated) would shift this statistic.

Your Right to Travel

Society has a duty to provide reasonable protection to its members. It is reasonable to expect people to be reasonably proficient when they operate machinery, whether it is a bicycle, motorcycle, horse and wagon, car, truck or whatever so they are not a threat to others. They have a Right to be a threat to themselves if they have insured that their injury or death will not be an expense to society. We the People have a Right to Travel but The Establishment has brain-polluted people into believing it is a privilege to operate a motor vehicle. Free people have Rights which they demand. Slaves, subjects and servants may (or may not) have privileges which they can only request. Requiring operators be proficient is reasonable; licenses are not.

Speed in and of itself is not a hazard. (If it was, wouldn't airline passengers, all of whom travel at 500 miles per hour, be dead?) A hazard exists when a vehicle is operated at an excessive speed or in an unsafe manner. If there isn't another vehicle nearby on a superhighway and my vehicle is safe and I'm experienced at driving "at speed," then it's up to an officer to PROVE that I'm a hazard to anyone else. What is the proper speed for traffic? The one at which 80 percent of drivers travel, IF they are free to choose. Establish Recommended Maximums or make the "limit" Reasonable and Prudent. Follow the recommendations of Federal Highway Administration's chief of the Traffic Safety Research Division, Samuel C. Tignor, Ph.D. and Highway Research Engineer Davey Warren. They wrote Driver Speed Behavior on U.S. Streets and Highways, published in the ITE 1990 Compendium of Technical Papers.

Our "superhighways" were designed and built decades after Germany's Autobahn, so we should have learned from them and our superhighways should be better. Maybe. On portions of the Autobahn, there is no maximum speed limit. Their accident rate is not excessive.

Surgeons are not required to have on their person all of their licenses when operating, are they? The existence of an operator's Certificate of Proficiency, vehicle registration number and possibly an insurance policy should be sufficient. End the police state atmosphere which requires the operator have these documents on their person. Their existence can easily be proven by telephone or radio or a witness.

One's performance, and not what is in one's system, should be what matters. In Against Excess Harvard Prof. Mark A. R. Kleiman wrote: "Doubtless, many people drive more safely drunk [or stoned] than I do stone-cold sober, and it is in some degree unjust to punish their drunkenness and leave my clumsiness and chronic inattention unpunished." A blood-alcohol level over whatever percent is NOT proof in itself that the operator is a hazard to society or themselves. Operating a vehicle in an unsafe manner IS.

In the June 1980 issue of Car & Driver the editors reported on a test they performed on themselves. There have been many tests showing the effect alcohol has on driving ability. This was the first time the effects of another intoxicant - Cannabis - Hemp flowers - were demonstrated. Anyone who disagrees with the results will find something to argue with. Not enough test subjects perhaps? OK, let's do more tests. They don't cost much. Practically nothing compared to human lives. The results were not surprising to anyone experienced at driving while mildly influenced by Hemp flowers. Every one of them performed better when slightly influenced by Hemp flowers than they were when "normal." Larger amounts reduced performance below "normal." One's performance, and not what is in one's system, should be what matters.

Rewrite "the book" - the MUTCD - the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. It is obvious from the title where the heads of the pseudo-engineers, bureaucrats, and statist megalomaniacs who wrote it are (besides being where the sun doesn't shine.) Note the word Control. Control, not Expediting. Dictionaries define Expediting as "speeding up the process or progress of, facilitating." THAT should be their goal, not Control. Replace - by any means necessary - the incompetents who wrote the manual - if any of them are still infesting the bureaucracy - with competent, enthusiastic people.

Stop wasting money on signs boasting how much money was spent on highway maintenance.

Change existing signs to

YOUR HIGH TAXE$ WA$TED on this sign

until they are removed and repainted and used to benefit motorists. These signs are an egotistical unnecessary distraction which nobody reads.

Establish an 800 number (perhaps 800-FIX SIGN) - with enough lines so it wouldn't be always busy - operated (not "manned") by voicemail and volunteers (more about them later) who we could call to report missing, stupid, or needed road signs. State, county AND local signs. Bureaucrats will act on these reports or lose their jobs.

Determine which type face for signs is visible and least confusing at maximum distance. Eliminate differences in background of State and Federal highway signs. All motorists care about is the number. Who cares about anything else? If possible, design symbols which are universally understood. Replace ALL confusing and inefficient words on signs with clear, efficient ones. Which is more effective: REDUCE SPEED or SLOW DOWN? Which is more effective: SCHOOL ZONE or a picture of a child? To be Politically Correct, the picture would be in chiaroscuro (shades of black and white: no color.) Signs should tell motorists what they should do, not what they shouldn't do. Replace NO TURNS signs with ONLY. Use two-stage direction arrows (for example ) and other methods to put more information on signs.

Replace those idiotic SPEED ZONE AHEAD signs. Oh good, a zone where I can speed! If a school is in a school zone, then obviously in a speed zone, you can speed. Or maybe it's where a needle freak can score methamphetamine and shoot it up. Right? It is possible to deliver the message in three words REDUCE SPEED AHEAD. Better yet - SLOW DOWN.

Reduce cost of signs by: using more than one sign on a post; mounting them on breakaway or spring-mounted posts; mounting them on existing lampposts; make signs by stenciling highly reflective, high contrast paint on utility poles; experiment with alternate methods of making signs (silk-screening, routed out laminated plastic, et al.); encourage businesses to erect signs and allow them to include their locations on them.

Determine where signs are needed by "common sense" and asking personnel at gas and service stations. This does NOT require an engineer although apparently it does take a DOT engineer to design and erect stupid signs.

Indicate direction on signs to nearest hospital, Fire Department, and Police Department.

At least one in every five street signs on side streets in municipalities should also include the name of the major street at right angles to it. Don't you love being lost, driving along some main road and seeing the names of all the intersecting streets BUT NOT THE ONE YOU ARE ON? Those Township Managers think they saved money, but they are alienating possible tourists.

County AND State Route numbers should be included on the local municipal signs. Don't you love the way we all get lost driving through a town? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE HIGHWAY I WAS ON? Suddenly it's "Main Street" [or whatever]; soon you'll come to a Y, then it's time to guess.

Announce the STUPIDEST SIGN OF THE MONTH and reward the discoverer. My candidate: in Jersey City, NJ STATE HIGHWAY But which one, you coprocephaloids? (Route 440)

Another favorite: SLOW DOWN GET TICKET (at Turnpike entrances.)

"Encourage" by any means necessary municipalities to reduce the maddeningly confusing changes in the names of streets. I hope there is a Hell where the idiots responsible have to spend Eternity getting confused and lost.

Erect AT LEAST as many route signs as there are Recommended Maximum signs. If you have never driven miles and miles LOST and seen nothing but SPEED LIMIT signs, you are fortunate.

Add the word THRU to signs above THRU lanes of highways.

Use the words ON and OFF at entrances and exits. Which set of words can you see from further away?

Remove those idiotic NO STOPPING OR STANDING signs especially on roads with eight or ten foot wide shoulders. I have not found that sign in MUTCD which might mean that they are illegal. At the few locations where some restriction on parking is appropriate, replace them with EMERGENCY STOPPING ONLY signs. Imagine . . . your vehicle catches fire . . . but "NO STOPPING OR STANDING!" Not even on the wide shoulder. SAY WHAT YOU MEAN AND MEAN WHAT YOU SAY!

Remove the words MUST and ONLY on turning lane signs or change them to "PLEASE." What if you don't know whether you want to turn because the street sign is only at the intersection, and there isn't another one halfway down the block also, the way it should be. This would deprive Blue Bludgeons the opportunity to lurk and extort $ from victims. Protect and serve? HAH! Protect and $erve WHO?? (Or is it "whom?") What if you don't know whether you want to turn because the street sign in only at the intersection, and there isn't another one halfway down the block also, the way it should be.

Motherf-----s who are caught defacing traffic signs should be nailed to those signs. Ignore the Liberals who scream "Racist."

Replace the words NORTH, SOUTH, EAST and WEST on signs with larger single letters (N, E, W, or S) so they can be seen further away. Use numerals on local street signs instead of spelling out the number. Again, because it is easier to see a single large numeral or letter than a small word. Use two-letter designations for directions where appropriate. New Jersey Route 18 is NW and SE, not N and S. Include compass points on signs, not just the names of nearby towns. Instead of A and B exits, use compass points where possible.

Interstate highways which literally "go around in circles" should use CW (for clockwise) and CCW (for counterclockwise) besides the confusing and often WRONG, N, E, W, and S designations. You look at I 287-87 in Rockland County, NY and tell me which direction is "NORTH" and "SOUTH" This portion of the "superhighway" is in an EAST and WEST direction.

ALL road signs must have washers under bolt heads and be double-nutted. All road signs MUST be secured by a minimum of three devices to prevent signs from rotating 180 degrees. Altho this is not a problem with Routes 1, 8, 69 and similar symmetrical numbers, it is with every other number. Any employee who fails to do so shall, WILL, replace at their own expense on their own time any signs which are lost for that reason. Signs which are strapped onto round poles must be attached so that they cannot rotate.

Change the meaning and interpretation if not the actual signs from STOP to YOUR FAULT! That's what they mean, isn't it? Many STOP signs are unnecessary and should be replaced with YIELD or MERGE signs. This will end the persecution of motorists whose only "crime" is to roll thru a STOP sign.

Change WALK and DON'T WALK signs to read WALK and PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK, as they are in The Netherlands. Here in the "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave" in The Golden State of California (Granola Country - Land of Fruits, Nuts and Flakes), Blue Bludgeons persecute people for such "offenses" and for jaywalking. In some areas, New York City for one, perhaps WALK and ARE YOU FEELIN' LUCKY? are appropriate.

Between the hours of midnight and 7:00 a.m., or whenever traffic is minimal ALL stoplights which are still functioning conventionally and not flashing shall be regarded as STOP or YOUR FAULT! signs. Stop, and if there is no opposing traffic, proceed. Don't you feel like an idiot sitting there waiting? Waiting because you know there's a chance of a Blue Bludgeon lurking out there hoping to catch a victim. Don't you have better things to do than sit there, wasting gas and polluting the environment, waiting for the light to change? And then there's the possibility of a carjacker lurking out there. ALL means ALL. NO EXCEPTIONS by bureaucratic meddlers.

All NO TURN ON RED signs shall be replaced with TURN ON RED WITH CAUTION unless bureaucrats can show by means of an expensive (at their personal expense), extensive study the need for a totally prohibitory sign. "Might cause accidents" is not sufficient reason. TURN shall mean right or left, whichever is appropriate.

Eliminate quotas on summonses for police officers. Give them Protection and Service awards. Turn Blue Bludgeons and Pigs into Peace Officers who genuinely Protect and Serve.

Eliminate, or at least minimize, the Police State atmosphere on the N J Turnpike. Did you know it is illegal to take a picture on the Turnpike? Stop and think about that for a moment. And if it doesn't sink in, think until it does. That was just one of many fascinating facts in a delightful book "Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike" by Gillespie and Rockland.

Erect advisory signs before Turnpike and Parkway entrances to warn motorists about congestion and other delays. They have signs warning about congestion ahead on other highways. Why not warn people when to avoid going on the "Super"highways?

Use Post Offices as focal points for car pools. I will leave it to others to make jokes about the Postal "Service." Well, maybe one. Every time someone uses the word "service" I remember farmers taking the cow to the bull to get serviced, and I know somebody is getting screwed.

Ah, the Motor Vehicle offices! The decor has improved from prison bar institutional grey to padded cell institutional pastel but "service" (in the barnyard sense) still takes MUCH too long. Survey other states and learn what they are doing. That does NOT mean send someone on an all expense paid junket. It's easy. It's easy! Ask the agencies of other states to send a video showing off their innovations. In Maryland offices there are Take-a-Number machines which includes the waiting time at each window. It was not more than fifteen minutes at any window. Compare that to AT LEAST a half hour at ALL N J offices. Keep employees helpful and friendly by any means necessary.

Repair highways at night, the way they do in Germany and Japan. Tell workers they are lucky they have a job at all, and won't if they demand premium pay for night work. The goals should be maximum durability and minimal disruption of flow of traffic. Otherwise, disrupt the flow of salaries to management.

Establish an 800 number (perhaps 1-800-POTHOLE or 1-800-FIXROAD) with enough lines so it wouldn't always be busy, operated by voicemail or human volunteers.

Make sure all potholes and impending potholes are repaired before winter. Consider moving utility cables and pipes to beneath shoulders and between roads and sidewalks as they do in Europe. Bury them in sand and cover them with bricks which are easily removed and replaced, instead of using concrete and asphalt.

It would be expensive to eliminate the hazardous decreasing-radius curves on ON and OFF ramps on the Garden State Parkway and elsewhere. Begin by erecting signs warning motorists. SLOW DOWN! DECREASING RADIUS CURVE! BLAME THE IDIOTS IN THE DOT FOR IT. Curves should also be BANKED, but that never occurred to the - - - - heads in the DOT.

Whereas too many people act like idiots when operating motor vehicles and this stupidity cannot always be detected by tests, highways should be foolproofed as much as possible.

Give recognition and awards to best sections of roads. Safest, most attractive, etc.

Fire (better yet, execute by slow torture) ANY bureaucrat who schedules road work on more than one parallel highway at the same time. Don't tell me that it won't happen again. IT DOES!

In North Dakota it gets so cold that salt is useless. Motorists learn how to drive on ice and snow or they don't drive. I learned. Salting the earth has always been an effective method to prevent plants from growing. STOP using salt! Instead we should use sand and gravel dust. Gravel dust is a very effective fertilizer. I'll be happy to tell you all about it.

Tolls should be proportional to vehicle weight. Bikers would probably ride free. If the cost of collecting the toll is a high percentage of the toll, the toll should be discontinued. Eliminate tolls for vehicles including buses filled with human passengers. Passengers could be obtained, free of charge, at ShairRide stops.

Start with a clean sheet of paper regarding insurance. Explore alternatives. THE ONLY THING INSURANCE INSURES IS PROFITS FOR THE INSURANCE CORPORATIONS.

Littering should be a moving violation with fine AND points AND Community Service to fit the crime. Erect signs at the borders and thruout the state Visitor or Resident - If we catch you littering, you'll help clean up THE TOXIC WASTE SUPERFUND STATE - THE GARBAGE STATE - and turn it back into THE GARDEN STATE. How about five days, dawn to dusk, rain or shine or snow, cleaning up litter. If you think that's "cruel and unusual," DON'T LITTER! (unless it's rapidly biodegradable). If you think that's not enough or are afraid the violator may "walk" because it cannot be determined which occupant of the vehicle did the littering, let's punish ALL the occupants of the vehicle.

Encourage citizens to videotape visually polluting vehicles and litterers and give them a CASH percentage of the fines. CASH means CA$H, no checks or 1099s. Ignore the screams of the tax parasites.

Pass a container deposit law with deposits appropriate for inflation AND encourage the RE-USE of containers - like it was in the "good old days."

Any political candidate whose campaign literature covers a sign should be given twenty-four hours to remove it or his or her name should be removed from the ballot in that municipality.

Municipalities should pass and enforce laws requiring candidates remove posters within (how about) a week after the election - win or lose.

Welcome volunteers to eliminate the highway mess. Encourage people from the age of the onset of interest (fourteen or whenever) to help. Give a credit toward outrageous insurance premiums. Enough hours of volunteer work might mean "free" insurance. Ignore the screams from the former insurance monopoly. Volunteers can probably do much of the work now (not) being done by paid employees.

Volunteers could perform Emergency Services on highways. Develop the skills and equip your vehicle with an orange lightbar on the roof and tools so you cam make minor repairs or fix flats or tow vehicles or call for help (negotiable donations expected for all of the above), remove hazards from the roadway and shoulder, pick up "some" litter, note anything that should be reported, etc. Note to Fish and Game Departments: Roadkill belongs to anyone who wants it. "The State" shouldn't even think of expecting us to ask for their permission to help people. Just DO IT! As for a name, how about Roadmasters?

Repeal the Federal gasoline tax. "The power to tax is the power to destroy [or enslave]." Why let them extort money from us, then plead for some of it back? DUMB! REALLY DUMB! When we consider all the money extorted from us in traffic courts and by insurance companies in surcharges, it might cost us less to tell the Feds they can go to hell and keep "their" money, and we'll maintain the roads with our own money.

Repeal the paternalistic prohibition against pumping your own gas in this Police State. Is there ANY other state with that law? (Yes, Oregon!) There is another option besides not being allowed to and being required to - to have the Right to.

Operating a cordless phone while operating a motor vehicle should be a moving violation, with points AND fine, unless one can operate the phone without using hands. If someone calls you, let it ring until you can pull over. Don't initiate any calls while you're moving.

Repeal compulsory helmet laws and cease other discrimination against bikers. The arguments are all in the Helmet Fighters' Handbook available from Easyriders magazine. It is illegal to wear a "full coverage" helmet in a car in some states because it restricts side vision. Head injuries kill as high a percentage of car drivers and passengers. The laws are unConstitutional because they discriminate and violate other Rights.

Make laws more realistic about the use of headlights at night and when windshield wipers are on. In brightly lit cities and suburbs, we don't need them. "In Rome, for example, people drive at night with their parking lights on, but their headlights off. It works just as well and gives a quieter, softer glow to the city." from Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do by Peter McWilliams.

Give high priority to increasing overhead clearance to AT LEAST 13' 6" (the maximum legal truck height) on ALL roads throughout the state. Meanwhile, erect adequate and sufficient signs indicating alternate routes. Encourage trucking companies to erect the signs.

Stop persecuting truckers. Eliminate restrictions on certain county roads "Local deliveries only." Otherwise, truckers should completely boycott those towns. See how long the prohibition will last when they stop making ALL deliveries.

Repeal any regulations which prohibit taxicab operators charging negotiable rates when roads are snowcovered or during a state of emergency.

Repeal all other laws which unreasonably restrict our freedoms and Rights while traveling. Repeal laws which mandate actions which cannot be proven to significantly enhance safety. Requiring headlights be on when windshield wipers are on is such as unnecessary law. Why not be satisfied with recommending it? Why insist on headlights? So-called parking lights or running lights may be adequate. How much fuel is wasted operating headlights unnecessarily? Well? How many gallons? Never thought of that, did you? Laws requiring operators and passengers wear seat belts/shoulder harnesses have NOT resulted in everyone wearing them. Allowing insurance corporations to disallow claims because of contributory negligence for not wearing them - with a warning to that effect on the dashboard - might be more effective.

At the beginning I asked: If you could avoid frustration and loss of time and money, how much would it be worth to you? First you have to agree that carrying out these proposals would achieve that goal and DO IT! Now, as the old joke goes, all we have to do is agree on a price. How about a penny per hour saved and a penny per hundred dollars you save? More? OK. Thank you! Comments, additions, contribution$, and involvement appreciated. I think this has the potential to be a profitable video "- - - - heads In The D.O.T." Anyone interested?

I want to thank someone I think of as the Road Wimp, a columnist for The Record "Friend of the people it serves"?? Yeah, Right! for inspiring this project. To the wimps, statists and Liberals who will consider some, possibly many, of these proposals outrageous: IF YOU DON'T LIKE FREEDOM, STAY OFF THE ROADS! THE ROADS BELONG TO WE THE PEOPLE! TAKE BACK THE ROADS!

April 16, 1984 plus 12