One of the things that bothers me is that many people insist police protection services should be free to use. 👮 There is a cost to using to government services, and one when voluntarily calls the police, they should be charged for the cost of the service — to discourage over use of the service. A $300 fee to file a police report makes a lot of sense — it’s the same fee you would pay to get access to the civil courts. 🚔 This fee would do a lot to discourage mass filers of criminal complaints — like at Walmart and other big-box stores.
If you are a victim of a crime then it makes sense to pay the proposed $300 fee for filing a police report. Crime is expensive to it’s victims — especially when you figure the cost of hospital bills for injuries and loss of use of stolen or damaged property. 🚨 It’s also expensive to local government to investigate and punish. If you are harmed by a criminal, it’s worthwhile to pay the $300 fee to get justice. After paying for the police report, you can ask a court for reimbursement for your losses, after the perpetrator of the crime is successfully convicted.⚖
There is the thought that poor people might be less likely to report crime, if they knew they would have to pay $300 to the local police department to have their report of crime investigated. 🔍 But actually that’s the idea — to reduce police utilization, you have to charge people for filing a police report. You could also set up not-for-profits that could assist impoverished people in covering police filing fees. This would ensure even poor people have access to police services.💰
Too often people are abusing “free” police services, getting the state involved when they could find their own solutions to problems impacting their lives.
The NYSDOT maintains 521 miles of state highways and interstates in Erie County and 515 miles of state highways in Saint Lawrence County. 🚧
In contrast, they maintain only 130 miles in all five of New York City boroughs, mostly parkways and expressways that don’t fall under city or Triborough Authority maintenance.
From time to time, there is an article calling for raising the federal gas tax,⛽ usually authored pushed by highway construction interests.👷 The argument is that the federal gas tax has not been raised in a quarter century, and it’s lost purchasing power over the subsequent decades as everything has gotten more expensive. 📈
That ignores the fact that highway mileage driven over the past 25 years has increased enormously — back in 1994 Americans drove 2.3 billion miles while by 2017 Americans drove 3.2 billion miles. The highway trust fund is getting richer and richer all of the time. Cars may be more fuel efficient then ever in the past but we are driving many more miles. 🚗🚌🚐🚚🚛
Instead of raising fuel taxes,we should look at redirecting existing fuel tax revenue from capital projectsto maintenance of the existing highways and operational support for public transportation systems. We need to stop building new and wider highways,🚦and focus more on patching potholes, fixing dangerous bridges, keeping existing infrastructure in good quality.🛠 Rather then replacing bus shelters and buses all of the time, federal funds should be expended to expand bus service to run more regularly — using existing buses — rather then throwing away old buses in favor shinny new ones.
We could save billions if we got away from the “use up and quickly discard” method of transportation infrastructure, 🗑 and focus the limited transportation infrastructure resources we have on repair 🔧 rather then replacing of existing bridges and building new roads. 🚘 For too long, we have literally been throwing taxpayer money away on new and expanded infrastructure, 💸 rather then using the limited resources to repair rather then replace the existing infrastructure. 🌉
One of the things I miss about working in the North Syracuse area this autumn is the quiet time I have on the bus commuting to work in Albany-area. 🚌 The time spent on the bus is a time I can work on blog posts and think about the day that is coming up. Driving is an all encompassing activity, it is a time waste, not time I can use in solitude with my phone while getting back and forth to work. ⏰
"The Department of Transportation has announced new federal voluntary guidance on the development and use of automated vehicles — with the goal of "removing unnecessary barriers" to innovation. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao said Thursday that the department's 80-page "Automated Vehicles 3.0" guidance "supports the safe, reliable and cost-effective integration of automation into our country's surface transportation systems."
The department indicated it was open to changing current standards that require all cars to have steering wheels, brakes and accelerator pedals. In trying to develop future cars without drivers, those current safety requirements could "constitute an unintended regulatory barrier to innovation," the DOT says. The agency said it would seek comment on proposed changes and consider "the possibility of setting exceptions to certain standards."'