NATIONAL MOTORISTS ASSOCIATION

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Dear MA Motorists

What can be said about 2003?


JANUARY:
Now that fine doubling in construction zones has been explained on hundreds of road signs across the state, we want to know when will the right-of-way rules at a 4-way stop intersection be explained to the general public.


FEBRUARY:
By some back-room maneuvering, Christine Sicinski of University of Massachusetts in Amherst, who has made a career out of being anti-motorist, got herself in charge of the "Rational Speed Limit Setting Demonstration Project" intended by the feds to benefit people who drive.

"The two-year project," she said at the FHWA/NHTSA Speed Management Workshop in Columbia, Missouri, "will reevaluate posted speed limits through engineering studies on targeted roads, strictly enforce revised speed limits, and educate the community and the judiciary on how speed limits are set and enforced."

At the end of the day, as implemented in Natick, legal speed limits didn't change (the yellow signs are only advisory) and all the money (including the portion earmarked to "educate the community") went to the police for around-the-clock enforcement.

"You are absolutely right about the study guidelines," she e-mailed me a year later, when I asked her about the 85th percentile speed limit she promised at the workshop. "But oh my gosh, you should have come to the community meetings!!! I can give you the blow by blow!"

I'm sure she'd much rather give all the residents radar guns to rat on each other, then try to present them with the rational speed limit concept as required by the study.


MARCH:
After the new Newton police chief Jose Cordero ordered all his men to issue only tickets and not warnings to every motorist they stop, he got caught speeding himself.

"I was testing my troops," he explained.

Where does it say breaking the law is allowed for testing?
How come he didn't insist he'd be given a citation himself?
Where are all the activists who like to rally about the "endangered children in the neighborhood?" Where are the politicians to tell the chief that "speed kills?" Where are the judges to lecture him to "slow down?"

Why wasn't anybody in the media complaining about this?


APRIL:
William Winstead of Georgia, Vt., said he was sleeping in his car letting time pass until he was sober enough to drive. He had the engine on to keep warm. But police said he was drinking and driving, and the New Hampshire Supreme Court agreed, upholding Winstead's conviction.

Winstead, 25, was arrested April 6, 2002, in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart Supercenter. He had been dropped off by a friend after returning from a club in Keene, Winstead said. He went to sleep with the car running, in neutral, and the emergency brake on and slept until police officer Shawn Hallock woke him around 3 a.m.


MAY:
The Massachusetts Port Authority has proposed increasing the tolls paid by drivers on the Tobin Bridge from $2 to $3. (BTW, the toll for Logan busses will increase by 400%. That ought to support public transit...) Anyway, revenue from the bridge, which the authority says costs 15 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR TO OPERATE also goes to pay for the $14.6 billion leaky Big Dig project.

However, the state can't wait until they implement the toll increases in April 2004, and so the Troopers began setting up speed traps right behind the toll booths to ticket vehicles as they are approaching them.


JUNE:
NMA introduced the First Annual 'Keep to the Right' campaign titled "Do the Right Thing" and many media outlets around the country picked up on our awareness efforts.

An NMA member sent us the following note: "Just letting you know that I am out here on a crusade. I am linked to the national site, but since I live in Mass I felt I should let you know as well. www.keeprightpassleft.net
Mike"


JULY:
The primary enforcement law of seat belt violations failed in the legislation again and a group of doctors and nurses announced they formed a new coalition to get the bill passed the next time.

At about the same time, a National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine study found that a person is twice as likely to be killed by a preventable medical error than in an automobile accident.


AUGUST:
The Health Care Committee is considering the next surcharge on tickets.

It would add another $50 to the existing $25 "head injury surcharge" and the $25 "general funds surcharge." If it passes, that would bring the minimum cost of a speeding ticket to $150, before any speeding fines are even added!


SEPTEMBER:
It was announced the "Click it or Ticket" traffic initiative is coming back. Massachusetts residents can expect to be scrutinized for every possible offense from speeding to expired inspection stickers so that police can be involved in the $1.8 million campaign.

So, please be careful on the roads between the following dates. The police will be very aggressive in their pursuit of this grant and ticket money at your expense:

* May 2004 Mobilization:
May 17 - June 6, 2004
* Labor Day 2004 Mobilization:
August 30 - September 12, 2004


OCTOBER:
Modern Continental, which also is a major contractor in the Big Dig, has fallen behind schedule in the $375 million expansion of Route 3 from Route 128 to the New Hampshire border.

"There were certain specific milestones that we had wanted to meet, and some items of concern that we raised to them, and we would like to see them doing some extra work to catch up," said state Transportation Secretary Daniel Grabauskas.

Good luck, Daniel.


NOVEMBER:
the Governor signed a bill authorizing the City of Springfield to seize cars used for "drag racing."

But as usual the Massachusetts bill is badly written. It authorizes Springfield to impound cars regardless of noise, but cars are already subject to forfeiture if the drag racing violated state law defined as "increased noise from skidding tires and amplified noise from racing engines."


DECEMBER:
Finally, the beginning of another winter in New England brought a surprise to many public officials: snow...


And so as we watch the pretty red and yellow twinkling lights of the season, let them remind us: for every lane change and every turn in the coming year - use your blinkers!

Season's Greetings,

Ivan
NMA MA Coordinator
1/04

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