National Motorists Association
Massachusetts Page

Hello Massachusetts motorists,

Welcome to the new Millennium - again. After the coldest November and December in I-don't-know-how-many-month, January promises to be the snowiest yet. Must be that global warming...

You could say last year wasn't particularly good to us. In the legislation the only bright spot was the failure of the Primary Enforcement of the Mandatory Seat Belt Law. (You still cannot get stopped and ticketed solely because the officer thought you were not wearing a seat belt. Still no points, and no 'safety checkpoints' - yet.)

But there were a few anti-motorist measures that did pass, most notably a transportation budget provision allowing mailed tickets for electronic toll violations.

"But shouldn't toll evaders be forced to pay like the rest of us?" I hear you ask.

Of course they should. Toll evasion has always been always against the law and police officers provided enforcement ever since the Pike opened. But allowing the police to mail you a ticket instead of handing it to you opens up a new way of collecting money. If the toll-booth cameras bring in cash, can red light cameras be far behind? (By the way, did you know most municipalities in other states shortened the yellow cycle of their traffic lights to increase the incidence of red light running, just before they installed red light cameras?)

And if red light cameras got excepted, there are no reasons not to implement video-based speeding tickets. For instance, in the finished 7.5 mile-long Central Artery/Tunnel project, between two and five operators in the Operations Control Center will be fed data and images gathered by over 400 closed-circuit cameras.

Another notable piece of work was the legislation that increased the minimum speeding fine to $75, for head injury research. While the cause is noble, this is yet another way of talking advantage of automobile owners. The state already charges seven separate fees to car owners and drivers: tolls, auto excise tax, gas tax, sales tax, registration fees, driver's license fees and inspection fees. (Yet the ballot question that would have offered to Massachusetts taxpayers a 100% tax credit for tolls and auto excise taxes was voted down last November. Go figure...)

So if you think it's time to DO something about the anti-motorist trends, please

READ the Legislative Alert

WRITE a letter to your lawmakers

TELL your friends about the NMA and these issues.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

1. Require that the Turnpike and MDC follow state highway department standards, including those for setting speed limits.
2. Reform some procedures for handling motor vehicle law violations, clarifying some discovery procedures and eliminating the requirement of a personal appearance.
3. Direct state agencies to set speed limits based on engineering studies, repealing the 65 MPH speed limit on designated rural Interstates.

I consider the first of these the top priority for several reasons. First, it has the best chance on its own. It doesn't directly deal with any controversial subjects. Second, the threat of losing federal highway funds (see below) will catch the attention of the legislature in a way that we can not match with any number of letters. Third, it will fight the speeding ticket problem at the source.

Citizen-filed bills are generally not taken seriously. The NMA is only as strong as its membership, and without a lot of support from you our chances are slim. Here is what we need you to do to help:

WRITE a letter to your state senator and state representative to support these bills

TELL your friends about the NMA and these bills. If you know of or belong to any groups that would be sympathetic to the NMA, tell them about the NMA and the bills.

Finally, regardless of the fate of these bills, you need to tell your legislators about specific highway speed limits that you think are too low. If a state representative gets 10 letters asking for the speed limit on Route 2 to be increased and he or she responds by writing a letter to MassHighway, they will take notice. That is how the speed limits on Route 3 and Route 146 were raised from 55.

There are also some anti-motorist bills that have a good chance of passing this session. In particular, Senator James Jajuga, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, wants to eliminate the requirement that the state Highway Department approves all speed limit reductions. If his bill passes, many municipalities are likely to reduce their residential speed limits from the current 30 to 25 mph or even lower.

SPEED LIMIT UPDATE

- The MassHighway District 3 traffic engineer recommended a speed limit increase on part of Route 9 in Natick. The recommendation was rejected by MassHighway headquarters in large part because Natick had not asked for a change. Of course they hadn't -- Route 9 is their most profitable speed trap.

- MassHighway is in the process of studying speed limits on on other parts of Route 9 as well. Changes are possible, but as long as traffic safety is subordinate to politics I don't expect reasonable limits.

MDC

Last summer I wrote a letter to MDC to remind them that the Manual On Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) required engineering studies before posting speed limits. And they replied that they were not required to follow the Manual. They claimed to use 'common sense' instead. Their policy is based on the broad power given them by state law. However the MUTCD is a federal law and it doesn't matter if the state legislature forgot to tell MDC to obey the law. The MDC recently received a letter from the Federal Highway Administration, warning that they could lose federal highway funds for noncompliance.

NMA will keep working on getting reasonable limits posted on all MDC roads. Meanwhile, if you get a speeding ticket on an MDC road, FIGHT IT!

Contact:

"I heard a report on WBZ-AM last week that 'they' think the recent fire in San Diego was caused by a cigarette tossed from a speeding car. How do they know how fast that car was going?"

Stay alert,