Why Pay-Per-Mile Auto Insurance is a Bad Idea after All
With so many services now available on a subscription basis, it’s little surprise that the insurance industry is moving in that direction too. One of the newer solutions from auto insurers is the pay-per-mile insurance plan. The idea is straightforward: you pay a flat fee to cover theft insurance and each time you drive the […]
Are We Slinking Ever Closer to a Universal Road User Charge? Part 1—the National Landscape: NMA E-Newsletter #549
A road user charge or RUC (also referred to as the Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax or VMT Tax and Mileage Based User Fees or MBUF) currently permeates nearly every discussion of how our country will pay for infrastructure in the future. Many transportation planners and elected officials seem to agree the time has come to […]
Where’s Our Cut from Data Mining of our Cars?
You’ve probably seen people driving around in cars covered over or “wrapped” with advertisements for some service or product and wondered how much the owner got paid to allow his car to be transformed into a mobile billboard. But he is at least getting paid. The non-wrapped cars are working, too but their owners aren’t being […]
Explanation of the California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA and how it will affect Drivers
This article first appeared in the NMA Foundation’s Driving Freedoms Magazine Spring 2019 edition. Beyond the rules update mentioned in the article, All Traffic is Local; additional CEQA rules will be coming online soon that could have an even more significant impact on street design. By July 2020, all California cities will be required to […]
Level of Service: Measuring Traffic Congestion
This article first appeared in the NMA Foundation’s Driving Freedoms Magazine Spring 2019 edition. According to the latest census, 85 percent of all Americans travel to work by single passenger car or by carpool. Since World War II, land use and American culture have been built around driving cars from locations A to B. By […]
NMA Principle Number 4: Freedom from Invasive Surveillance
The Driving in America Blog was started a year ago to bring more information to those who are beginning their journey as motorists’ rights advocates. Over the next several months, I will be working with each of the seven NMA principles to give readers of this weekly blog some idea of what we all are working towards […]
The 85th Call to Action (Time Sensitive): NMA E-Newsletter #517
The Fall 2018 issue of the NMA member magazine Driving Freedoms (“The Big Lie”) sounded a clarion call against the dismantling of established traffic engineering standards by the very agencies tasked with upholding those standards and protecting the public. Swept up in the Vision Zero dream of achieving zero road fatalities, the Federal Highway Administration […]
The Carrot and the Stick Approach to Vehicle Tracking: What’s wrong with congestion pricing and Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax Schemes?
This article first appeared in the NMA Foundation quarterly magazine Driving Freedoms Winter 2016 edition. Smart Growth supporters claim their transportation fixes will reduce congestion and lead to more accessible roads for all users. In practice, the opposite may be true. In the winter 2015 Driving Freedoms, a California NMA member described how congestion and […]
TheNewspaper.com Roundup: April 30, 2018
In this week’s TheNewspaper.com Roundup! –VA Supremes one step from banning License Plate Spying– –OH Supremes skeptical over municipal speed cam suit– –WA State VMT Tax experiment cost $2000 per participant– Friday, April 27, 2018 Virginia Supreme Court One Step From Banning License Plate Spying Police use of automated license plate readers (ALPR or ANPR) […]
Is an Infrastructure Apocalypse on the Horizon?
The US’s aging Infrastructure seems to be falling apart but what is worse is no one knows how to fund infrastructure. How much more can motorists pay before they can no longer pay any more? Motorists already pay a state and federal gas tax. Motorists already pay special wheel taxes or additional vehicle registration fees. […]