- Other Motorist Issues
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NMA Position on Other Motorist Issues
Driver Training
Driver training and education programs should be readily available for all beginning vehicle operators.
These programs should emphasize skill development and sound driving practices.
Such courses need not be mandatory, but subsequent license testing procedures should place priority on evaluating driving skills and driving practices, versus rote memorization of traffic rules and regulations.
The NMA further encourages the use of driving simulation devices to teach new drivers skill techniques that would otherwise be too dangerous to employ in actual vehicles on public roads.
Motorist Taxation
All user taxes collected from motorists - gas taxes, registration fees, excise taxes, etc. should be levied in amounts necessary to build and maintain the highway system.
These motorist taxes and fees should not be used to subsidize other public works projects or programs unrelated to motorist services. To the greatest extent feasible, these taxes should be apportioned in an equitable manner that balances the tax owed with the burden placed on the highway system.
Racial Profiling
The National Motorists Association opposes the use of racial profiling, especially by police officers during traffic stops. Crime prevention and public safety are high priorities. However, there is no evidence that targeting particular racial or ethnic groups helps prevent crime or improve public safety. In fact, racial profiling is counterproductive to both goals. This unjust practice only serves to undermine the legitimacy of law enforcement while subjecting the affected persons to intimidation and humiliation.
Recent legislative attempts to deal with racial profiling have overlooked the fact that racial profiling is part of a more pervasive problem: pretextual traffic stops. During such stops, police use minor traffic infractions, real or alleged, as pretexts to stop and interrogate vehicle occupants. In the case of racial profiling, an officer uses traffic infractions as an excuse to pull over drivers who belong to a specific racial or ethnic group.
The NMA realizes that this is a very real problem for millions of African Americans, Latinos, Middle Easterners, and South Asians. We'll work with minority communities to ensure that the proper legislative and legal steps are taken to curtail the use of racial profiling by removing the incentive for conducting pretextual traffic stops.
Real ID
The National Motorists Association has long held that the driver license should serve one and only one purpose; that is to certify that the owner of that license has proven that he or she is capable of operating a motor vehicle, on a public roadway, and in a safe and prudent manner. We do not believe that the driver license should be suspended or revoked unless, through due process, it is proven that the license owner is not driving in a safe and prudent manner.
The driver license should not be used as a general identification instrument. Many persons do not possess a driver license. Currently, and unfortunately, many persons lose their driver license for a multitude of reasons, many of which have no relation to unsafe driving. The manner in which the driver license is carried and used makes it highly susceptible to theft and physical loss. Under the "one national I.D. number" concept the compromise of that number would expose the victim to financial ruin, malicious acts, and the exposure of highly personal information. Real I.D. is a bad idea and using the driver license for Real I.D. makes it a worse idea.
Having a single national I.D. card/number is an invitation to fraud, theft, and the loss of personal security and individual privacy. It will also exacerbate corporate and government abuse of private citizens. Using the driver license for this purpose further compounds the negative consequences of a mandatory national identification program.
Search Other Motorist Issues
Information
- NMA's Real World Driving Tips
- NMA's Seven Sensible Signals
- Making Sense of Highway Crash Data
- Better Roads Save Lives
- The Realities Of Racial Profiling
- The Supreme Court And Racial Profiling
- NMA Efforts To Curtail Racial Profiling
- DOT Numbering Requirements
- What Determines Traffic Citations?
- Signal Retiming Study
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School Bus Stop Laws
Very informative page on the laws governing school buses in the US and Canada.