‘06 Red Light, Green Light Transportation Awards

By Tom Crosby
Each year decisions are made in the Carolinas and events occur involving transportation and traffic that have a major impact on our daily lives.  Many of those decisions invite evaluation due to their brilliance, absurdity and, occasionally, stupidity.

Here are AAA Carolinas’ picks for 2006.  Green light is praise for a good decision or outcome; red light indicates a bonehead, or at the very least, questionable decision.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Green light
To The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina for its October, 2006 story focusing on lax laws relating to teen-age drinking and driving in the Palmetto State. Currently, teens can be ticketed for holding a beer but not for drinking it and for buying alcohol but not for attempting to buy it.  Beer kegs are not registered so they can’t be traced back to adults who buy them for a teen party.

Red light
To Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer for insisting he should have a state-paid chauffeur to provide “security.” This after Bauer was stopped by state police for going 101 mph in a 70 mph zone on Interstate 77. He had been stopped before for
exceeding the speed limit on I-385.

Green light
To the Enmark gas station on Boundary Street in Beaufort that gave drivers paying cash for gas a 3 cents a gallon lower price last January because the station wouldn’t then have to pay credit card usage fees.

Red light
While the Palmetto State’s work force has been growing an average of 4.7 percent a year, the number of commuters driving alone has increased 5.3 percent. Maybe Southerners aren’t that friendly after all.

Green light
To the state’s mandatory seat belt law which became a primary traffic offense in December, 2005 meaning anyone not wearing a seat belt could be stopped and ticketed.  Result: A more than 13% drop in fatalities in 2006 - the greatest single-year drop in fatal accidents in the state in more than 35 years.

Red light
To Bart Reeves, current mayor of Cottageville, who has received at least eight traffic citations, mostly for speeding, and once had his license revoked for two years in after being declared a habitual traffic offender. Cottageville, located on Route 17A between Summerville and Walterboro, is often called a speed trap.

Red light
To unlicensed drivers. In December of 2005, South Carolina had 156,452 motorists (about 5 percent) with suspended or revoked driver licenses out of 3 million drivers. Some estimates say there are at least another 300,000 who drive who never had a license. Such drivers are four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than licensed drivers.

Green light
To the Attorney General who sued seven South Carolina gas stations for price gouging after Hurricane Katrina. The stations donated $3,500 to the Red Cross and while it didn’t hurt them financially ($500 each), it let them know someone is watching.

NORTH CAROLINA

Green light
To the legislature for requiring back-seat passengers of all ages to wear a seatbelt. The law took effect December 1 but law enforcement officials won’t begin issuing tickets until July 1, 2007 to allow the public time to become educated on the law. Roughly 87 percent of front seat occupants in N.C. Buckle up; only 38 percent of back seat riders do the same.

Red light
To the legislature for diversion of gas tax money to the general fund instead of reserving it strictly for roads. The total diverted since 1990 exceeds $3.2 billion. The state’s tax-sharing philosophy is grossly outdated and doesn’t work in a state with the sixth-highest gasoline tax (even with a cap) and the nation’s second largest road network.

Green light
To the N.C. Transportation Hall of Fame for the induction of Coleman Roberts, who founded AAA Carolinas in 1922, and the N. C. Business Hall of Fame for the induction of Bert Collins of N.C. Mutual Life Insurance and a AAA Carolinas board member since 1995.

Green light
To the increase in train passengers on the Piedmont between Charlotte and Raleigh. June was a big month with 6,000 more riding the rails than the same month in 2005.  Higher gas prices were a prime reason.  Ridership started to drop with lowered gas prices but also contributing is the train’s failure to arrive on time in one of every three trips.

Green light
To the legislature for banning 15, 16 and 17 year-olds from talking on a cell phone while driving. Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for this age group and anyone using a cell phone while driving is four times more likely to be in an accident.  Teenagers should focus on learning to drive before  learning to talk on a cell phone and drive.

Red light
N.C. Legislators capped the state gasoline tax at 29.9 cents a gallon this summer without any plan or legislation to replace reduced revenues caused by freezing the tax. In a state projected to need $30 billion over the next 23 years to maintain its highways, the politically popular act will have negative reverberations at budget time for years to come.

Green light
To the state Department of Motor Vehicles, which will now is now bill vehicle owners for automobile property taxes instead of each of the state’s 100 counties. If you don’t pay, DMV won’t issue a new or renewed tag. One in three motorists failed to pay on time and one in seven never paid in the past.

The billing switch will save DMV $8 million a year in postage (the counties pay for it) and help counties collect an extra $80 million a year. Everyone wins except those who don’t pay their taxes and will have to drive with no tags.

Red light
The state DOT was almost ready to open a portion of I-485 in Charlotte when it discovered that someone forgot to order the street lights to illuminate the new stretch.  Lead time for delivery was several weeks so the opening of a road that has been in the planning and construction phase for more than 15 years had to be delayed further. Maybe someone felt a few more months didn’t matter.

Green light
To the city of Durham for cracking down on litter in a new program called “Do It Right, Keep It Tight”

NATIONAL

Red light
To the automotive industry. For model year 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency said the average fuel economy for cars, SUV’s, pickups and vans was 21 miles per gallon - the same as in 2005.  Didn’t the sale of hybrids vehicles help?

Red light
To the nation’s ethanol and diesel prices, which are typically higher than gasoline. Ethanol produces cleaner emissions but can reduce a vehicle’s mileage rate by 10-25 percent. Diesel is now a cleaner burning fuel thanks to federal regulations reducing diesel’s sulfur content but it typically costs 25 30 cents more a gallon than regular, self-serve, unleaded gasoline. Being green is expensive.