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TheNewspaper
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TheNewspaper: A Journal of Driving and Politics
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New Jersey to Double Toll Existing Toll Roads
 A key lawmaker thinks paying just one toll might not be enough for drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. WCBS-TV reports that state Senate President Richard Codey is proposing new toll lanes be added to these existing toll roads, creating special double-toll lanes within a toll road. Those willing to pay only $1.70 would sit in congestion from Exit 8A to Exit 6 on the Turnpike, for example, but those who hand over $3.40 could enjoy the chance of a quicker journey in newly constructed lanes.
"My idea is to let a private company come in," Codey told WCBS. "There will be signs telling where there's congestion and where there's not and you make a decision and then continue on the old part of the road where there's no toll increase or take that new section for a while where there would be an increase."
Codey's plan would be to start with a demonstration project before expanding to cover more of the state's toll roads with extra tolls. Source
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Virginia: Toll Road Company Made Illegal Donations
 An Australian toll road company is on the hot seat for funneling $177,000 in illegal campaign cash to Virginia lawmakers since 2005. The Washington Post reported earlier today that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is investigating the issue and that Transurban has already asked state legislators to send back any campaign checks that may have violated the law.
According to the federal regulations governing elections, "a foreign national shall not, directly or indirectly, make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value... in connection with any federal, state, or local election." (11 CFR 110.20).
Transurban, which is headquartered in Melbourne, made the donations to help secure the rights to toll portions of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 95. In return for contributing just $349 million of their own capital to the Beltway expansion project, Transurban earned the lucrative rights to bill Virgina drivers for at least eighty years. The rest of the project was financed with $1.6 billion in federal and state grants, loans and guarantees (details).
Many of this deal's biggest supporters were recipients of significant contributions from Transurban. Governor Tim Kaine (D) got $19,500 for his inaugural, leadership and campaign warchest. House Speaker William J. Howell (R) took $12,500 for his leadership committee. Delegate Dave Albo (R-Springfield) received just $500.
The contributions fell afoul of federal law because the FEC's definition of a foreign national includes foreign corporations. Most lawmakers were unaware of this because media reports often incorrectly refer to companies like Transurban as "Transurban USA" in the same way that red light camera vendor Redflex is called "Arizona based," suggesting they are not wholly owned and controlled by foreign corporations. Both Transurban and Redflex, for example, are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Each company ultimately answers to a CEO and board comprised of foreign nationals. When money flows from the foreign parent company to the US office, it becomes impossible to tell whether the foreign nationals are directly bankrolling the political donations, which is the most clear violation of federal statute in question.
US election law also makes it illegal for state lawmakers to receive such contributions knowingly. Although it is unlikely to applied in this case, FEC rules state that legislators would be liable if they were, "aware of facts that would lead a reasonable person to inquire whether the source of the funds... received is a foreign national, but the person failed to conduct a reasonable inquiry."
These lawmakers, however, will not need to return other sources of campaign cash used to secure their support for the Beltway HOT lanes. Fluor Enterprises, a ten-percent partner in the deal, gave Virginia lawmakers $242,685 in donations since 2001. Fluor is based in Dallas, Texas. Transurban has also retained the lobbying services of seven influential lobbyists who are free to make donations of their own. Lobbyist H. Benson Dendy, III, for example, has given candidates $14,932 over the years, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
Transurban told the Post that the returned donations would be donated to charity. Source
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Illinois: Local Police Seize Cars by the Thousands
 Cities and counties in Illinois are confiscating cars from motorists to generate thousands in annual profit. At a press conference yesterday, local and state officials held a press conference to celebrate the state law that has allowed the taking of 3000 vehicles in DuPage county alone.
"Article 36 is another tool we have at our disposal to help keep our roads safe," said DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph E. Birkett. "I think the important thing to remember here is this is all about safety."
About 265 cars have been taken this year in DuPage from drivers with expired or suspended licenses, about 120 cars were taken from motorists accused -- but not necessarily convicted -- of drunk driving and about 29 cars from drivers accused of offenses that have absolutely nothing to do with driving. The law permits, for example, seizing vehicles from a driver accused of carrying too many cigarette cartons purchased out-of-state or for gambling offenses. The punishment can be imposed even when no criminal conviction imposed. A municipal court makes the decision using a looser civil standard to avoid the need for a jury trial or proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
It is big business. The county has been able to keep 260 cars so far this year -- the courts allowed accused motorists and lien holders to keep vehicles in only about one-third of cases tried. In most jurisdictions, the confiscated cars are sold at auction. The city of Naperville, for example, earned $137,000 from sales in fiscal 2008.
The confiscation press conference coincided with an announcement by Governor Rod R. Blagojevich (D) that the state would spend $1.4 million to conduct more than one hundred roadblocks over the July 4 weekend. Drivers who have done nothing wrong will be stopped and searched on Independence Day and those who may have lapsed registration paperwork could lose their vehicles. "Seat belt enforcement zones" will also be used to issue as many tickets as possible during the holiday. Source
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UK: London Congestion Charge Downsizing Possible
 London Mayor Boris Johnson announced yesterday that, for the first time ever, he would give residents the chance to roll back the city's congestion tax. In 2003, Johnson predecessor Ken Livingstone decided to charge motorists £8 (US $16) to enter the downtown area during working hours. Just four years later, Livingstone extended the charging area westward to encompass the boroughs of Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster. Johnson promised to give the public a say in the matter during his successful campaign for office.
"The previous mayor made the decision to introduce the western extension in the face of overwhelming opposition," Johnson explained in a statement. "Unlike my predecessor, I am going into this with an open mind and this will be a genuine consultation. It is high time that politicians listened to the people whom they represent."
Johnson is not proposing an up or down referendum. Rather, he will provide an open forum where any proposal on the topic can be heard. Johnson wants to hear from those who live in or near the congestion charging zone as well as affected businesses in the area.
"[Stakeholders can] tell me whether they want to see it removed, improved or if they are simply unmoved," Johnson said.
He will also distribute questionnaires and collect responses on the Transport for London website.
"Londoners can be assured that, whether they stand for or against, this time their opinions will be respected and we will abide by the results," Johnson said.
Many in the city would like to see the entire tax abolished, as studies have shown that it has failed to reduce pollution and has increased congestion. In October 2007, just six months before his six-point defeat at the ballot box, Livingstone signed a contract making elimination of his pet project extremely difficult. IBM has the right to collect the congestion tax until the year 2014, unless the city exercises a buyout clause that would cost taxpayers millions. Source
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New Jersey Appellate Court Protects Corzine Crash Cops
 The speeding New Jersey state trooper responsible for last year's crash that nearly took the life of Governor Jon S. Corzine (D) will not receive any penalty against his driver's license. An appellate court last week blocked an attempt by private attorney Seth Grossman to bring reckless driving and speeding charges after a state prosecutor refused to do so. Grossman suggested it was a double-standard to allow the driver who caused the accident -- or the governor who gave the driver his orders -- to escape penalty.
"One or both of those men committed a crime that put lives in danger, and the law should hold one or both of them accountable," Grossman wrote.
The appellate division of the state superior court disagreed by rejecting Grossman's move without discussion of the merits of the case. The court claimed Grossman lacked the court certification required for him to act in place of the municipal prosecutor.
Corzine's accident in question happened on the Garden State Parkway on April 12, 2007. State Trooper Robert Rasinski, 34, had been rushing the governor in a state-owned Chevy Suburban to a media event with radio show host Don Imus. While hurtling at more than 90 MPH -- possibly as fast as 100, Rasinski lost control and struck a guardrail. According to state police Superintendent Rick Fuentes, "Trooper Rasinski did not possess the appropriate level of situational awareness in the moments leading up to the accident." Fuentes also admitted that Rasinski violated departmental policy regarding speed and the use of police lights in a non-emergency situation.
In the crash aftermath, Corzine, who had not been wearing a seatbelt, spent days in critical condition able to breathe only through a ventilator machine.
"It took a remarkable team of doctors and a series of miracles to save my life," Corzine said in a public service announcement he made after the crash to emphasize the importance of seat belt use.
Grossman filed his suit against Rasinski as a private citizen because he was outraged at what he called a cover-up by the state police.
"For five days, state police officials denied that the governor's speed was a factor," Grossman wrote. "They falsely blamed the accident on 'swerving' by the driver of a red pick-up truck, and spent lots of time and money looking for him. But they found that driver, and four days later, the state police came up with a new story that was closer to the truth... The governor's driver simply lost control and ran off the road." More
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Study: Toll Transponders Hide Cost of Tolling
 Electronic transponders offer toll road operators an effective means of disguising toll hikes, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Amy Finkelstein. Her study, published last December, showed how the E-ZPass system creates what she described as an "EZ-Tax."
"I find robust evidence that toll rates increase following the adoption of electronic toll collection," Professor Finkelstein wrote.
Economic theorists from John Stuart Mill to James Buchanan have argued that disguising the true price of government activity fuels government growth far beyond a level that would be acceptable to an informed citizenry. Finkelstein used electronic toll collection to test this public choice theory against real economic data.
Tolling provides a perfect test scenario, as motorists forced to toss coins into a basket are informed citizens. They know exactly how much it costs to drive on a cash-only toll road because the amount paid comes directly out of their pocket. This is not the case with transponders. Electronic transfers from credit card accounts can keep prices hidden until the monthly statement arrives. Although E-ZPass, I-Pass and Fast-Trak provide a great convenience to drivers, it comes at a price.
"Because the driver need no longer actively count out and hand over cash for the toll, the toll rate may well be less salient to the driver when paying electronically than when paying cash," Finkelstein explained.
To establish whether motorists using transponders knew how much they were paying to use a road, the study used in-person and telephone surveys. Finkelstein, for example, asked toll road users in Massachusetts, "What is your best guess of how much you paid in tolls today on the Mass Pike on your drive here?" Sixty-two percent of transponder users responded, "I don't know." Only two percent of cash users gave that response.
"The primary finding is that electronic toll collection drivers are much less aware of tolls than cash drivers," Finkelstein wrote. "This suggests that they are likely to be less (rather than more) responsive in their driving behavior to toll changes."
The finding is at odds with one of the main arguments in favor of congestion pricing. Namely, that drivers will adapt their driving behavior as the toll price changes to match levels of congestion.
The study looked next at toll collection records from 123 roads located throughout the US, with each road provided an average of fifty years' worth of data. Finkelstein noticed that adoption of electronic tolling methods increased, so did rates. Specifically, when transponder usage hit the 60 percent mark, toll rates skyrocketed between 20 and 40 percent over what they would have been in a fully manual toll collection system, despite the lower operational costs involved.
Finkelstein's data also show that cash toll hikes were 75 percent lower during state election years. She suggested that this is the case because drivers paying in cash know when they are being hit and operators are reluctant to impose an extra financial burden during a period when lawmakers are most responsive to the public. Operators have no such worry with transponders, as the data show no slowdown in electronic toll hikes during election season.
Finkelstein concluded by suggesting topics for further inquiry.
"Evidence on what is done with the extra revenue from the higher tolls -- in particular, whether it is used for purposes that may be valued by users of the facility such infrastructure investment or reductions in other highways fees, or whether it primarily serves to increase rents for the governing authority through increased employment or salaries of bureaucrats -- could shed some light on the normative implications of the higher tolls under electronic toll collection," Finkelstein wrote. "Unfortunately, the available data are not sufficient for analysis of this issue."
The full text of the report is available in a 380k PDF file at the source link below. Source
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Illinois Toll Road Overbills Wisconsin Drivers
 Illinois toll roads falsely accused thousands of Wisconsin drivers of skipping out on tolls. The Illinois Tollway admitted to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that its I-Pass electronic toll transponder system had a problem recently repaired. This problem was responsible for generating a significant number of the 133,000 violation notices, imposing fines of up to $1000 on Wisconsin residents, mailed since May.
The tollway's cheat detection system system photographs every driver who passes through a toll booth or I-Pass lane. A computer program then runs each photographed license plate against a database of transponder accounts if automated payment is not completed for any reason. The system is designed to automatically bill the credit card of valid account holders. But when the program looked up transponder information from Wisconsin drivers, the system became confused by records using the term "autos" in a field that Illinois refers to as "passenger vehicles." As a result, the program assumed everyone from Wisconsin with a valid I-Pass account was a cheat.
"These crazy computers," Illinois Tollway spokesman Joelle McGinnis told the Journal Sentinel. "You tell them to look for X and they look for X."
Because the system only generates fines after three violations within two years, some motorists received tickets for alleged offenses that took place in 2006. Drivers struggling to remember what happened were met with endless busy signals when attempting to resolve the matter. Those who did have their fines canceled were still charged the higher cash rate for their tolls, instead of the proper I-Pass electronic rate. Source
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New Mexico Supreme Court OKs Seizing Cars from Accused
 The New Mexico Supreme Court on Friday gave the city of Albuquerque the green light to begin confiscating automobiles from motorists not necessarily convicted of any crime. The court's unanimous ruling did not defend the merits of Albuquerque's controversial program. Instead, the justices declined to intervene before the city had taken any cars from drivers accused for the first time of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI).
"At least as a matter of judicial policy if not of jurisdictional necessity, our courts have generally required that a litigant demonstrate injury in fact, causation, and redressability to invoke the court's authority to decide the merits of a case," Justice Richard C. Bosson wrote for the court.
The controversy began in 2005 when the Albuquerque City Council announced that it would take cars away from anyone arrested for DUI, even from those who have never before been convicted of any offense, as a way to raise $300,000 in annual revenue. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico quickly filed suit to stop the program on constitutional grounds, arguing that it would impose a punishment based upon arrest, not upon an independent finding of guilt by a court of law or jury. The organization suggested that the program placed all drivers in the city at risk.
"Since it is not illegal to drive a vehicle or to drink before driving a vehicle, so long as the driver's blood alcohol concentration is within statutory limits, the ordinance potentially subjects drivers who drink, but are not intoxicated under our laws, to the threat of forfeiture of the vehicle that they are driving," the court summarized.
A trial court agreed with the ACLU that Albuquerque had set up procedures that violated constitutional due process protections, but the state appeals court rejected the ACLU's right to challenge the city ordinance. The state supreme court sided with the appellate judges in concluding that the harm claimed by the ACLU was too speculative. The court would not overturn an ordinance simply because it might be abused.
"If it turns out that the city does, in fact, seize and forfeit a vehicle based solely on probable cause for the arrest, regardless of whether the owner is ever convicted of DWI, then that vehicle owner will have the concrete injury, the motive, and -- given the ACLU's willingness to intervene -- the opportunity to mount an effective challenge to the ordinance," Bosson concluded. "The issues raised by plaintiffs, though certainly serious and of constitutional magnitude, involve questions of due process that are best addressed in the context of a specific case after enforcement of the ordinance."
The decision clears away all prior injunctions that had prevented the city from starting its confiscation program. Source
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Ohio City Caught Distorting Violation Drop
 Earlier this year, Middletown, Ohio trumpeted a drop in red light camera violations as a sign that the safety program has been a great success. The Middletown Journal newspaper reported today that this may not be true and that the drop in violations may be explained by factors unrelated to any improvement in driver habits.
The city consistently told reporters that the drop in violations was proof of an increase in safety. In February, for example, WCPO-TV reported the following:
"Back in Middletown, Major Mark Hoffman says the number of drivers running red lights is down, and he says that means that their mission is accomplished. 'It's been nearly three years since you put the first cameras up,' Major Hoffman said. 'I think the program has been a success.'"
From April to December 2005, there were 5708 tickets issued or 20.8 per day. In 2006, there were 5732 or 15.7 per day. In 2007, there were 5415 or 14.8 per day. This year, January through May shows just 1844 tickets or 12.2 per day.
The big drop started in May 2007 when the German company Traffipax bought out the camera ticketing contract from Peek Traffic. Since then, one of the city's eight cameras has been out of service and unable to issue any tickets. The city has also complained that the new vendor has kept poor records of both accidents and tickets.
The city was also outraged when revenue plunged from $142,250 in 2006 to just $107,518 in 2007. Anticipating a greater drop this year, the city council earlier this month even considered dropping the program. The Middletown Journal reports that city officials have now been convinced to save the program by hiring a new company to take control of ticketing. Source
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London Borough Ends Car Impounding
 Motorists in the the London, UK borough city of Westminster no longer need to worry that their car might be booted or impounded over a minor parking infraction. The city council on Wednesday announced would end a parking enforcement program which had resulted in the towing and booting of more than 30,000 vehicles over a period of three years. The council proposed a far more friendly alternative for vehicle owners.
"For certain parking contraventions, Westminster may relocate a vehicle to a nearby paid-for parking space, particularly if the vehicle is causing an obstruction or preventing a permit holder from using their parking bay," the borough's parking website explained.
Drivers who block driveways or parking spots for the disabled will still be issued an expensive parking ticket and have their car moved to a legal parking spot nearby. They will not, however, be subject to fees for towing and impound lot storage. Under the old program, certain parking offenses required payment of £70 (US $140) for removal of a vehicle boot or clamp. Cars not ransomed within four hours were taken to the impound lot where another £200 (US $400) fee was assessed in addition to the parking ticket.
For those who cannot find their relocated car, the city has set up a number for drivers to call to determine its location. The policy change does not affect motorists on private property where for-profit firms make £125 (US $250) from each vehicle towed. Source
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Arizona Drops Speed Camera Points
 In a severe blow to the insurance industry, the cash-strapped Arizona state legislature yesterday approved an expansive speed camera program designed to boost state revenue by dropping license points and eliminating costly legal challenges. Governor Janet Napolitano (D) first announced the proposal in January, expecting it to generate $165 million in revenue from new $165 "civil" tickets mailed to vehicle owners.
The plan was adopted as part of a much larger $9.9 billion budget package that passed 16-10 in the state Senate and 31-29 in the House. Lawmakers had been desperate to find new ways to cover a $2 billion deficit. The approved budget authorizes the Department of Public Safety to hand a private company up to $20,361,300 to set up and operate speed cameras on freeways throughout the state. The first $3 million of net profit generated will go to police agencies to buy tasers, $4 million will go to the courts and the remainder will be deposited in the general fund for spending by lawmakers.
Until now, Arizona had been one of a handful of states, including California, Colorado and Illinois, to issue points against the driver's license of the owner of a car accused by a machine of speeding. Although motorists may prefer not having points on their license, the change to a civil citation is designed to reduce costs and court challenges. Instead of proving a case beyond a reasonable doubt, the state will only need to show that it was "likely" that a vehicle was speeding. The owner of the car would then be liable, regardless of whether he was actually driving.
Operational costs are also reduced as extra cameras will no longer be needed to capture a driver's face. Under civil rules, a snapshot of a license plate will suffice. That means the state will no longer lose tickets because, for example, sun glare obscured the driver's face. Last year, a photo enforcement vendor recommended dropping points to boost the odds of photo ticketing's statewide political survival.
On the other side of the issue, insurance companies, including the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, have spent millions promoting the use of photo ticketing technology with the hope that all such programs would eventually issue points. Outside the United States, nearly every country that uses speed cameras issues points, generating billions in revenue from annual premium surcharges. Insurance lobbyists were disappointed by yesterday's vote. More
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BMW M3 Beats Prius in Fuel Economy Test
 Until losing his election last month, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone had hoped to encourage residents to sell their high-performance sports cars and SUVs by charging a £25 (US $50) environmental tax each time they entered the city's downtown area. Drivers of politically favored hybrids like the Toyota Prius, on the other hand, would either have enjoyed either a steep discount or a free ride.
A test aired Sunday on BBC's Top Gear television program, however, casts doubt upon the notion that a hybrid would be the most fuel efficient in every circumstance.
"This is a BMW M3," the show's host Jeremy Clarkson said in introducing the car that would compete with a Prius. "It is not designed to be as economical as possible; it is designed to be fast."
Clarkson chose the most extreme examples to make the point -- a sedan equipped with a V-8 engine producing 414 horsepower against the Toyota Prius with its 76 horsepower hybrid motor. The EPA rates the BMW at 14 miles per gallon in the city, and 20 on the highway which compares unfavorably to the 48 and 45 figures for the Prius. In this test, the M3 matched the speed of the Prius as the hybrid ran flat-out over ten laps of the 1.8 mile Top Gear Test Track in Surrey, England. Measurements taken after the run show that the Prius returned just 14.3 miles to the US gallon, while the BMW had 12 percent better fuel economy at 16.1 miles per gallon.
"It was one of the dullest drives of my life, but in the interest of science I stuck with it," Clarkson said. "Seriously, what I'm saying is, it isn't what you drive that matters, it's how you drive it. That is everything." Source
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Tennessee Supreme Court Upholds Tickets for Dawdlers
 Driving through Tennessee so slowly that traffic begins to back up is now a ticketable offense. The state's supreme court on Monday issued a unanimous ruling making it clear that dawdling on the road can be considered a crime.
The case began when Chattanooga Police Officer Joseph Shaw noticed a slow-moving Nissan Altima on Market Street at about 1am on May 11, 2005. Shaw estimated the Altima driver was driving at 25 MPH on the four-lane road, even though the speed limit was 35 and the rest of the traffic on the road was flowing smoothly at 50 MPH. This difference in speed caused a backup, according to Officer Shaw.
"When (approaching automobiles) would come up behind us they would have to brake fairly quickly and change lanes in order to pass," Shaw testified. "And there was moderate traffic even for that time of night on that road."
Shaw followed the Altima for about fifteen blocks before deciding to pull over the driver, Richard Adam Hannah. Hannah had no license and showed some signs of intoxication. A later search discovered a small amount of cocaine and marijuana in the car, resulting in the arrest of Hannah and his passengers. Shaw's basis for the stop was a law against impeding the flow of traffic.
"No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or compliance with law," Tennessee Code section 55-8-154 states.
A trial court decided this law did not apply to the situation at hand and threw out the evidence against Hannah and his passengers. The trial court, with the support of appellate courts, interpreted the word "impede" in the statute as coming to a stop on the road and blocking other drivers from continuing on their way. The supreme court did not buy this interpretation.
"Had the legislature intended for a violation to occur only when an automobile was completely stopped in the roadway or caused other automobiles to stop, we presume it would have said so," Chief Justice William M. Barker wrote. "Accordingly, we agree with the state that the trial court's interpretation that a driver must cause other automobiles to come to a stop and wait for an unreasonable amount of time is too restrictive and would essentially emasculate the import of the statute."
The high court found that drivers may travel slowly, but only if that slowness does not cause a backup for other motorists or violate a posted minimum speed. The court also added in a footnote that driving at the speed limit is "normal and reasonable" even when everybody else on the road is traveling much more quickly.
A full copy of the decision is available in a 95k PDF file at the source link below. Source
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Ohio: Law Would Allow Forced Blood Draws by Police
 A proposed law currently awaiting the signature of Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D) would remove any barrier to a police agency that wishes to forcibly remove blood from motorists accused of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). State Senator Timothy J. Grendell (R-Chesterland) introduced this anti-DUI measure which sailed through the state House with an 87-6 vote and a 33-0 vote in the Senate earlier this month.
Grendell's bill is designed to extend the concept of implied consent beyond a mere breath test. Anyone who obtains a driver's license automatically would agree to allow his blood to be taken at the request of any police officer. Moreover, the consent doctrine would also apply to anyone who uses water skis or anything else "watercraft-related" in Ohio.
"A law enforcement officer who makes a request pursuant to this division that a person submit to a chemical test or tests shall advise the person at the time of the arrest that if the person refuses to take a chemical test the officer may employ whatever reasonable means are necessary to ensure that the person submits to a chemical test of the person's whole blood or blood serum or plasma," the proposed law states. "A law enforcement officer who acts pursuant to this division to ensure that a person submits to a chemical test of the person's whole blood or blood serum or plasma is immune from criminal and civil liability based upon a claim for assault and battery or any other claim for the acts, unless the officer so acted with malicious purpose, in bad faith, or in a wanton or reckless manner."
Although the law specifies that only "a physician, a registered nurse, or a qualified technician" can draw blood from a motorist, a number of North Texas police agencies have devised a twenty-four hour course that certifies traffic police to take blood as technicians. Ohio's program will go far beyond that of Texas, however, by removing the requirement that a judge must issue a warrant before the blood can be drawn.
Last year, the Minnesota Supreme Court struck down warrantless blood draws as a violation of the Fourth Amendment (view ruling), while a New Jersey appellate court upheld the concept and dismissed a complaint against police officers who caused permanent injuries to a motorist during a forced blood draw (view ruling).
The Ohio legislation will become law by July 4 unless the governor vetoes the bill. The full text of the proposal is available in a 450k PDF file at the source link below. Source
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Study: Higher Interstate Speed Limits are Safe
 Purdue University this week released results of a study showing that there was no change in the number of accidents after Indiana increased the maximum freeway speed limit to 70 MPH on July 1, 2005. Civil engineering Professor Fred Mannering led the team that looked at accident data from one year before this change -- when the top legal speed was 65 MPH in rural areas -- for comparison with accident rates a year later.
"Everybody expects that when you increase the speed limit, injuries and the severity of injuries are going to increase, but that hasn't happened on the interstate highway system in Indiana," lead researcher Fred Mannering said in a statement.
Mannering's study noted that expert opinion is divided on this controversial subject. For example, a 1999 report sponsored by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety claimed increased limits resulted in higher accident rates. The insurance industry depends on speeding tickets to provide surcharge revenue. Other independent studies, including a 1994 review of the effect of the change from the national 55 limit to 65 on rural roads, have arrived at a contrary conclusion that the higher limit, in fact, saved lives.
Mannering used a statistical model to calculate accident probabilities based on his own examination of data from 390,000 accidents recorded by the Indiana Vehicle Crash Record System. After applying the model, he concluded that the increased speed limit had no effect on the probability of suffering an accident nor did it increase the severity of accidents that did occur.
In 2006, only 5.78 percent of the state's accidents were caused by unsafe speed, a decrease from 2004. The study also noted that a 15 MPH increase in the speed limit did not produce a 15 MPH increase in the actual speed traveled. Instead, real speeds increased only 12 MPH. The report suggested that speed limit changes may have had a negative impact on some non-interstate rural roads and that future changes for secondary roads should be evaluated on a "case-by-case basis."
An earlier version of the paper presented before the Transportation Research Board is available in a 140k PDF file at the source link below. The report will also appear in an upcoming issue of the Transportation Research Record. Source
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National Motorists Association Australia 
