National Motorists Association
Massachusetts Page

Hello Fellow Motorists,

As you've heard many times, September 11, 2001 has brought changes into everyone's lives.

While some changes may be superficial (the people who used to stare at the x-rays at Logan are now frisking concertgoers at the Orpheum), other changes potentially effect us all, as motorists.

I am specifically referring to the use of roadblocks, and to the installation of street surveillance cameras presumably to combat terrorists.

ROADBLOCKS

According to a Globe story, on Saturday, November 3, state troopers conducted the first in a series of roadblocks at the airport to search vehicles coming to Logan International Airport for weapons and other illicit cargo. 528 cars were stopped, but none posed a threat.

So what was this trying to accomplish? Do you really think they were hoping to intercept a carload of terrorists trying to get a trunkful of weapons to the airport? It is more likely that a publicity stunt such as this one was devised to reassure the public the government cares about our safety - which is like a parent slapping a child to let him know he is being loved... Please speak up against the use of any roadblocks -their primary purpose is to intimidate the public.

SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS

Not that they don't make any mistakes, because they do. (Recently, a Orleans, MA, man got in the mail a camera ticket from Colorado. He wasn't in Bolder in over 60 years, the picture clearly showed a different car with a different license plate, and a much younger driver. Not even his friend, the town's Chief of Police, could get this man out of the ticket. An employee of the private for-profit company which operates these systems around the country, suggested the ticket "would probably be taken care of" if the man travelled 2000 miles to a hearing.) But the problem is larger than that.

It is but a small step from the "traffic management" video cameras we already got as a part of the Big Dig project, or a street surveillance video network proposed around Boston "to combat terrorism," to a full-fledge robocop system of automatically fining motorists for any number of traffic infractions - real or imagined - while flesh-and-blood Law Enforcement Officers stand behind utility trucks drinking coffee...

IN OTHER NEWS

• The Massachusetts legislature passed House Bill 4318. This bill is going to reduce the speed limit in "thickly settled" areas from 30 to 25. It also clears the way to allow cities and towns to reduce their limit even further.

  There was no safety reason to reduce speed limits whatsoever.

  • Posting signs isn't the answer: if people didn't drive 30, they won't drive 25 either.
  • Only a few places may need a 25 MPH speed limit and not every residential area in the whole state.
  • The demand of Boston and Cambridge for lower speed limits would cause a general reduction statewide.
  • The bill undermines the authority of the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, and takes away the authority of the State Highway Department to reject speed limits not justified by safety measurements.
  • Do you trust local governments to set reasonable speed limits and not just try to appease the most vocal residents?
  • Do you trust local police to enforce these new limits fairly between the town residents and non-residents?

  The Senate is scheduled to vote on this bill sometime next year. It's still not to late to voice your opposition.

• In other legislative news, a new measure clarifies that open bottles and cans of alcohol are allowed in mobile homes - provided the vehicle isn't moving, because - I guess - they didn't want you to spill your drinks. (Just in case you feel that I'm somehow in support of drunks harassing me and my family: The point is, I don't think lawmakers needed to waste their time and our money legislating the fact that a "mobile home" can be both.)

• And continuing in our occasional series of publicizing little known road laws:

  • In Massachusetts, you MUST keep to the right, regardless of speed limits. Chapter 89: Section 2 of the State General Law (Passing vehicle traveling in same direction) basically says "always stay in the right lane, unless you're passing someone going slower than you, or unless you're about to make a left turn."
  • And Chapter 89: Section 4B (Driving in lane nearest right side of way) says, "when you're passing another vehicle, do so on the left, unless you're on a road where passing on the right is OK (usually highways, not secondary roads). And if someone behind you wants to pass, don't be a pain: Move over."

  Please spread the word.

• Due to the political infighting, the turnpike toll increases have been postponed till at least June 2002.

EMERGENCY DRIVING HANDS-ON COURSE

The successful Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association (MSADA)/Stevens Advanced Driver Training program for teenagers (recently featured in the Globe) may also become available for grown-ups. The anticipated cost of the half-day program may be around $300-$350. Please let me know if you are interested. As one participating adult pointed out: "You don't know how little you know about driving, until you've taken one of these classes. One day your life may depend on it."

And so, as we used to say long before September 11: "Keep the shiny side up and I catch you on the rebound, good buddy!"

(Or, as Brock Yates expressed the same sentiment in the latest issue of Car & Driver: "The terrorists just proved how vulnerable our air-transport system is...and yet no effort is being made to improve the one transportation system mode that is most immune to interdiction: the motor vehicle.")

Happy New Year,

Ivan Sever
MA State Chapter Coordinator
1/02 ma@motorists.org

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