Prey for both criminals and bureaucrats

"the book To Serve Man,
...
it's... it's a cookbook!"
- from Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man

Here's a unsettling thought submitted by a perceptive reader to Instapundit,

Local governments are clearly shifting from chasing criminals to chasing revenue. Which, from the point of view of their own self-interest, makes a lot of sense.

Let’s say that you are a local government, and you think of your budget as YOUR resources and not those of your constituents. You have a choice of two broad strategies (or a mix thereof): either pursue actual criminals for CRIMINAL OFFENSES, a process which requires the expenditure of resources and can be hard/dangerous work. Or you can pick on generally law-abiding citizens for civil offenses via revenue light cameras, roadside BAC [Blood Alcohol Count] screenings, “driving while talking” laws, seatbelt enforcement, aggressive parking enforcement, laws limiting grass/weed height, etc. While those non-criminals may sometimes show up in court to fight the charge, they typically don’t run or put up much of a fight (physical or otherwise). They pay their fines and get on with working, raising their families, paying their taxes, etc.

Given the quality of our political class, and given how many bureaucrats and government employees see their job as a birthright rather than a solemn responsibility, it should come as no surprise that taxpayers are getting it from both ends, and are seen as prey for both criminals and bureaucrats.

It was in reaction to the post, Drunk Driving Enforcement is A Racket.

The cynic in me says that as long as police officers and municipalities see drinking drivers as cash cows and hide behind the fig leaf of “traffic safety”, arbitrary standards based on BAC will continue even though they may be counterproductive.

What does he mean by counterproductive?

Using 2009 data collected by the University of California at Berkeley, California Watch showed that 1,600 sobriety checkpoints yielded 3,200 DWI arrests. A typical checkpoint would yield only two or three drunk driving arrests. ... When you consider how many hundreds of drivers get stopped at each of those checkpoints, it hardly seems productive to catch a tiny number of drivers that are over the legal limit but may or may not be dangerously impaired, while at the same time seriously impaired drivers go unstopped because so much police manpower is devoted to sobriety checkpoints.

So why have checkpoints if only two people are caught on average?

a single DUI conviction can mean thousands of dollars of revenue for the jurisdiction that issued the citation. That’s only the tip of the iceberg, though. While sobriety checkpoints don’t catch many seriously drunk drivers, they do nab folks for equipment infractions or other sorts of minor crimes and they end up generating a huge amount of revenue for those municipalities and police officers that do use checkpoints. That same California Watch story revealed that those 1,600 police checkpoints may have yielded just 3,200 arrests for DWI, but they resulted in $40 million in fines, plus $30 million in overtime pay for cops and a staggering 24,000 vehicle confiscations.

Bottom Line

Never forget that government exists to serve the people, not exploit them [or eat them].

Please don't drive and text

"Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don't have."
- insurance claim

You've heard the warning, "Don't Drink and Drive". It's a common problem. Here are two stories on the topic:

No Amount Of Drunkenness Will Turn A Taco Into Your I.D.
A drunk driver passed out in his car in the drive-thru lane at a Taco Bell. While unconcious his foot was on the accelerator revving the engine and it caught fire! When the police arrived the driver handed them a taco when asked for his ID.

Study: Binge Boozing Costs Society $2 Per Drink
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published a study showing that each alcoholic drink ends up costing society $2 in extra medical expenses, locking up drunk drivers, and damage from accidents.

And yet drunk driving is not the only problem behind the wheel. Driving while tired is a big problem in today's society where most adults do not get enough sleep. A great-uncle of mine fell asleep while driving and drove off an overpass.

New problems for drivers include cell phones and texting. I read one story of a bus driver who sheared off the top of his bus on a low overpass. He had missed the height warning sigans while complaining on a cell phone.

Texting may be even worse than cell phones. The Blackberry outage last month gave researchers a chance to measure the impact. In the country of Dubai, while Blackberries were offline, traffic accidents fell 20% from their average rates. In the city of Abu Dhabi, accidents fell by 40% and there were no fatal accidents during the outage.

Bottom Line

Driving is serious business. We take it for granted but fast moving cars are deadly weapons and the driver must remain alert at all times. A single distraction is all it takes for an accident.

Saving Gas when Driving

"Electric cars aren't pollution-free; they have to get their energy from somewhere."
-Alexandra Paul

Popular Mechanics has 6 ideas for saving gas this summer.

1. Avoid hard braking at stops. Coast when you can.
2. Get to cruising speed quickly. Cars are more efficient at higher gears so you waste gas if you slowly accelerate. On the other hand, this is not a drag race. 15 seconds to reach 50 mph is about right.
3. On hot days at high speeds use the Air Conditioner. At 55 mph the A/C and open windows get similar gas mileage. At higher speeds the A/C wins. Below 55 the windows have the advantage.
4. Speeds kills (MPG) - air resistance increases with speed. So going over the speed limit will save very little time and cost more money.
5. Climb hills slowly - you gain some mpg (but not much) if you turn off cruise control on hills and allow the car to slow down a bit instead of accelerating to keep the same speed. Just beware of angry drivers!
6. When coasting down hill, leave the car in gear. "Most fuel-injected engines today use computer-controlled Deceleration Fuel Cut Off: When you lift your foot from the gas while leaving the car in gear, injectors shut off automatically, so, the engine consumes no fuel at all while the vehicle is coasting downhill." A car in neutral gear will continue burning some fuel.  

Bottom Line

Read more: Driving Tips to Save Gas - Memorial Day Weekend - Popular Mechanics

Falling asleep at the wheel

"Sleep is like the unicorn - it is rumored to exist, but I doubt I will see any"

The Consumerist sites a AAA study of 2,000 U.S. residents that 41% of drivers admit to having fallen asleep at the wheel, and drowsy driving accounts for about 17% of all crashes, and 2% of vehicular fatalities.

One in 10 said they did so in the past year and 27 percent of those surveyed said they were so tired behind the wheel that they had a hard time keeping their eyes open.

Drowsy driving was attributed to 730 deaths in 2009--about 2 percent of all vehicular fatalities, but an analysis of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash data reveals that one in six or 16 percent of deadly crashes involve a driver who is sleepy and one in eight result in hospitalization. These statistics are higher than previous estimates and suggest that drowsy driving is a more prevalent factor in crashes, deaths, and injuries.

Bottom Line

The Consumer Reports recommends, "Drinking a good quantity of water helps as it prevents dehydration that can cause drowsiness. It also requires you to pull over regularly and stretch your legs for a bathroom break."

Pull over (preferably at a rest stop) and take a nap. My wife and I once did Tai Chi next to the car to wake up. Throw a Frisbee. Do jumping jacks. Take turns driving.

Caffeine may be good for a short burst but watch out for the "crash" afterwards as the body swings to exhaustion.

When Brakes go Bad

“When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.”

Last week I took my car to a mechanic to examine why the maintenance light had come on. I figured it was just a routine warning for a check-up at 75,000 miles and had driven the car for several weeks, over 1000 miles, since the light had come on since everything seemed fine to me. Imagine my surprise learning that one of the front brakes had warped and locked-up. Now I knew braking was funny and I had to exert more force than normal but I thought it was the tires going bald. No clue that I was driving with just one working brake in front.

It can be argued that brakes are the most important safety feature on a car; seat belts and airbags are important but brakes are the first line of defense in NOT hitting something. Brakes wear out with use, but they do so slowly, meaning you may not notice they need attention until it's too late.

The most obvious indicator of brake wear is an incredibly high pitched squeal when you come to a stop; like fingernails on a chalkboard. Brake pads include a little piece of metal that rubs against the metal rotor when the pad wears down to ¼ inch or less. When you hear this sound, under normal driving, the brake needs to be replaced within the month. If you wait too long, the metal indicator in the pad will cut a groove and the rotor will have to be smoothed or replaced. Occasionally, the indicator falls off and the pad wears with no warning noise. If it takes longer to stop than it used to, or if the brake pedal travels farther down than it used to, get your brakes checked.

Rotors should last through two or three pad replacements. However if your steering wheel wiggles in your hands when you come to a stop, your rotors are probably "warped." A warped rotor causes braking vibration or pulsation. This is what happened to my car.
My mechanic attempted to "turn" my rotors by shaving off enough metal to make them smooth again but they were too warped and had to be replaced. Interestingly the “warp” can be very, very small; the faces of a disc brake rotor must be parallel (within .0005 inch on most cars) and flat (no more than about .002 to .005 inches of variance.)

One site described the rotor as the white center of an Oreo cookie being squeezed by the two dark cookie brake pads. The brake rotor can become "warped" due to normal wear and tear; most newer cars have very thin rotors which warp easily. Rotors can also warp by throwing cold water on a hot brake; for example driving through a puddle of water on the exit ramp after a long freeway trip and then applying the brakes.

Your brakes will last longer if you…

•Avoid "riding" your brakes.  Slow down with brief moderate pressure and release the brake to cool instead of keeping a long steady pressure on the brakes and overheating them. I’m guilty of riding my brakes – I like a smooth stop.

•On steep downgrades downshift your engine gear (but only do this when road traction conditions are good to avoid skidding.)  Downshifting lets your engine do some of the braking instead of your brakes.

Bottom Line

Top Ten Signs of Brake Wear:

1.   High pitched squealing

2.   Vibration in the steering wheel when stopping

3.   Grinding noises when stopping

4.   Increased braking distances

5.   Longer pedal travel

6.   Feeling the car "pull" to the left or right when stopping

7.   A weak emergency brake

8.   A bad smell after coming to a hard stop

9.   Pedal "fade"

10. Not stopping

Web Links

http://www.driverside.com/auto-library/car_brakes_how_do_you_know_when_to_change_them-22

http://autos.yahoo.com/maintain/repairqa/brakes.html

http://www.carbibles.com/brake_bible.html

http://www.autoeducation.com/autoshop101/brakes_1.htm

http://autos.yahoo.com/maintain/repairqa/brakes/ques005_1.html;_ylt=Avhqy6hScwTyAd9i5a7Yv86Dc78F;_ylv=3

Challenging Tickets

"I fought the law and the law won"
- song title & lyrics

Unlike the song, it is possible to fight the law and win when the law is wrong. Consumerist.com has three recent stories of individuals challenging errors in law.

In the story, Judge Fired In The Case Of The Overdue DVD, a teen was arrested for failing to return a DVD to the library (it was accidently packed when the family moved to a new town. The straw that breaks the camel's back is the DVD had been found and returned BEFORE the arrest occured. The Judge never rescinded the warrant after the library notified the court that all was forgiven. This and 71 other similar mistakes led to the judge being fired.

In, Teacher Defeats Traffic Ticket With The Power Of Math, the victim of a traffic ticket did more than just complain that the yellow light is too short. Her husband measured the light with a stop watch (several times to get an average) and found that it was .8 seconds below the time limit set by the state. The ticket was challenged in court and thrown out.

In Man Receives Ticket While Walking From Car To Parking Meter, a motorist it given a parking ticket before he has a chance to get out of his car and pay the parking meter. His letter to the DMV is a classic and resulted in the ticket being dismissed.

Bottom Line

When challenging a ticket or arrest, keep calm, don't get mad, and gather all the facts and evidence you can.

Safe Driving Distance

"I would like you all to give me a round of applause as I have not crashed my car in over 15 months"-Matthew Perry

When I was in High School and took Drivers Ed, the rule for safe driving distance was one car length for every 10 miles per hour. But that rule is not so easy to use in practice. Can you visualize the difference between five and six car lengths while driving?

Studies show that most people require a second and a half to respond to a stimulus. So if the guy in front of you hits his brakes, your eyes see it, the image goes to your brain, your brain thinks "I better do something", sends the command to your foot, and finally (a total of 1.5 seconds) your foot BEGINS to hit the brake pedal. If you're tailgating at high speed and only a car length behind - you may well crash into the leading vehicle before you ever have a chance to brake.

In New York State the recommended safe driving distance is 2 seconds for speeds under 40 mph. Above 40 mph the recommended distance is 4 seconds. The site SmartMotorist.com takes the average and recommends 3 seconds at all speeds. What does this mean? How do you follow 3 seconds behind?

Pick a landmark alongside the road like a lamppost, road sign, tree, etc. When the rear bumper of the car in front of you passes it, start counting - one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, and so on until you reach the landmark with your front bumper. That is your driving distance. Now be sure to pad your counting with "hundred thousand" or "Mississippi" to get a full second with each number.

Is 2-4 or 3 seconds the final answer? No. These numbers only apply to perfect driving conditions. NY State recommends you add more time for

Twilight or Dark +2 seconds
Fog +1 second
Rain or Snow +1 second
Old Age +1 or 2 seconds
Sleepy or jetlagged +1 or more seconds
Distracted (cell phone, eating) +1 or more

These numbers are cummulative. So if you're driving on the interstate late at night in the rain and a bit tired then

2 + 2 (>40 mph) +2 (night) +1 (rain) +1 (tired) for 8 seconds driving distance.

SmartMotorist.com recommends doubling the time to 6 for adverse conditions and tripling it to 9 seconds for blinding rain, heavy fog, blizzard, and similar very adverse conditions. Of course for "very adverse" you might also consider pulling off the road and waiting.

Bottom Line

The distance needed to stop your car consists of two parts.

First is the distance your car travels while you notice the problem and the moment you finalize your decision and actually start to push the brake pedal.(your reaction time, 1.5 seconds on average if alert).

Second is the distance that brakes need to stop your car - actual stopping distance. This is the reason for more distance time in rain & snow. It takes longer to for the brakes to for the car to stop.

Also realize that it takes longer for heavy vehicles to stop. If a truck is tailgating you, you might be able to brake quickly enough to avoid a collision in front but the truck behind will run right over you. Don't let anyone bigger than you sit on your tail. Get out of the way.

Driver Error

"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG"- Bill Gates

Happy New Year! Today's blog is about a New Year's resolution that everyone can make to become a better driver.

According to the New York State Defensive Driving course, 95% of vehicle collisions are the result of Driver Error. Accidents that could have been avoided with better driving habits.

The definition of driver error is very broad and includes the following:

Distracted Driving - using a cell phone, reading a map or GPS, reading a book or newspaper, watching a movie on DVD, eating, putting on makeup, radio too loud, adjusting the mirrors, yelling at kids in the back, trying to text message or use a computer. People do amazing things while at the wheel!

Driving Too Fast - You might be speeding or just too fast for the local conditions. You can not expect to handle tight curves in the rain or snow at the same fast speed you use on sunny and dry days. You might be going too fast in a school zone and unable to stop in time for a child.

Driving Aggressively - there is fast and then there is crazy. People who hover on your back bumper and pass with just inches of space to spare. People who weave between cars trying to go faster than everyone on crowded highways. An extreme case of aggression is "Road Rage".

Defective Equipment - as the driver you are responsible for the maintenance of your car. If an accident occurs because the tires are bald and have no grip, the brakes are worn and slow to stop the car, the wipers are old and don't clear the windshield well - these are all preventable and listed as Driver Error. See Icy Windshields for winter advice.

Impaired Driver - it could be exhaustion from lack of sleep or chemically impaired by alcohol or drugs or medications. Check out my post on Rest Stops.

Bottom Line

Don't drive angry! Don't drive while impaired!

And pay attention while driving - check out Living Room on Wheels for more on distracted driving.

Living Room on Wheels

“When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.”

In this modern world multi-tasking is a badge of honor and time wasting is a sin. So it comes as no surprise that people can be found eating, shaving, texting, calling, typing, and having sex while driving. (Hopefully not all at the same time.) We think nothing of it but this distracted driving carries a high price.

AAA reports that Distracted Driving - including the use of cell phones - is a major contributor to automobile crashes with 4,000-8,000 distraction related crashes each day in America; one-half of the 6 million U.S. crashes reported annually. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) blames driver inattention for 68% of rear-end crashes. Using a cell phone while driving increases your chance of getting into a crash by 4 times. A recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute shows that driving while texting increases crash or near-crash risk by 23 times.

Think of driving as a full contact sport. It requires our full attention to notice little details like a child running onto the street. I listen to books on CDs and have found that either I remember very little of the CD or very little of the drive. The book “Why We Make Mistakes” tells the story of a DC tour bus driver who was angry and venting to his sister on a cell phone while driving a 12’ tall bus. He did not notice the road signs warning of a 10’ tall bridge ahead and did not notice the bridge until he crashed into it at full highway speed tearing off the top of the bus.

Bottom Line

Hands-free phones make dialing safer but the real danger is being distracted by the conversation.

Resources
Currently, 18 states and the District of Columbia ban text messaging for all drivers. For an up-to-date list of Distracted Driving laws, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) maintains a state-by-state guide.

The National Safety Council also has a nice website showing state laws.

See Cyber Drive Illinois for more facts about distracted driving.

GPS Saves the Day!

“There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here!”
– TV cartoon show

My wife & I are late technology adopters. We are not luddites (i.e. anti-technology) but we are often the last amongst our friends to buy a cell phone, use the internet, buy Cable services, buy a large flat screen TV, etc. The chief reason is cost. We wait until technology becomes cheap.

This year we finally purchased a GPS. And after a two-week road trip to Winnipeg, Canada and back we are so glad we have it. At one point in North Dakota we had 40 miles of driving range left before we ran out of gas. The GPS told us where to find the nearest gas station. During the trip we visited lots of oddball attractions recommended by RoadsideAmerica.com. The GPS helped us find them. If a major road had delays, the GPS plotted a detour. And while our route was predetermined, we were never sure just how far we would travel on any given day. The GPS helped us find motels each night.

If you are an active hiker or camper, consider buying a portable GPS. The article, 10 Ways That Your GPS Can Save Your Life, has several stories of someone lost or stranded but able to call rescuers and give an exact location using their GPS.

Some clever uses of GPS from the article include:

• A GPS tracking device (shot at the fleeing vehicle) for police car chases
• A GPS tracker in the shoes of Alzheimer patients
• Cargo smart airdrops using GPS
• GPS tracking bracelet for children

The story, Car Horns Warn Against Natural Disasters, describes the eCall emergency system, which will be required in new European cars after September 2010. The eCall system consists of a GPS sensor and a mobile phone component, which is automatically activated in case of an accident (i.e. when the airbags are triggered) and transmits data (e.g. accident time and coordinates) to an emergency call center.

Bottom Line

A basic model GPS will cost from $70 to $200. You can spend more if you want Blue Tooth, traffic reports, music uploads, games, etc. We got lucky and purchased a discontinued deluxe model at 70% off. One advantage of the deluxe model was multi-point trip planning. During our road trip I was able to enter in all the stops we wanted to make that day and find the best route.

Do keep in mind that GPS is not perfect. While it may know road speeds (usually), ours was clueless about stop signs and traffic lights. It might divert us from a main road to a residential road where the speed limit was similar but we had to stop every block for stop signs. In Amish country it sent us along many dirt roads. And sometimes an error in the address like W vs. E or Lane vs. Drive could send us on a wild goose chase. And the data may be out of date. When we were low on gas in North Dakota, the first station it sent us to had gone out of business.

Rest Stops

“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?” - George Carlin

In an effort to save money, the WSJ reports that states are closing some roadside rest stops (i.e. Virginia, Louisiana, Maine, Vermont, and Colorado. Others like Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Arizona are considering it.) This is bad for motorists. According to a German study from 2007, “driver fatigue (sleepiness, tiredness) is the largest identifiable and preventable cause of road accidents worldwide, accounting for approximately 15-20 percent of all accidents.”

Fatigue can occur at any time of day. I’m sometimes sleepy behind the wheel during my morning commutes as I’m still waking up. During a vacation back in college I was so exhausted after midnight while trying to reach my reserved motel room that I had to take a roadside nap so I could continue driving. If you need a sudden nap, do NOT pull off onto the highway shoulder or the top of an off-exit ramp. You may get rear-ended at high speed by a drunk diver who is lane weaving.

Besides night driving, the AAA identifies 2-4pm as a danger time for fatigue. Lunch digestion kicks in and the body gets sleepy. The siesta cultures are on to something here.

States maintain 2,500 rest areas along the interstates. There are no federal rules for their spacing, but the recommended distance is no more than one hour's drive apart. If there is no rest area or it’s closed, look for an exit if you’re feeling tired or need a break. A national directory lists nearly 2,500 privately owned truck stops located at interstate extis. Wal-Mart permits overnight stays by recreational vehicles at most of its 4,000 locations.

Bottom Line

Consumer Reports has these suggestions to avoid fatigue:

• Get adequate sleep before you drive
• Take breaks. If feeling tired, pull off the road and nap for 15-20 minutes.
• Arrange for a travel companion to swap driving duties
• Avoid alcohol and/or medications that can cause drowsiness
• Caffeine may help, but it takes times to activate and when it wears off it can leave you even more tired.
• Drinking water helps as it prevents dehydration that can cause drowsiness. It also requires you to pull over regularly for a bathroom break.