Holman Jenkins column today (How to Save Detroit And $50 Billion) reiterates his postion that CAFE (government mandated fuel-mileage standards) has at best not helped to reduce fuel consumption. This is absolutely correct — he does however stretch his arguement beyond the breaking point by ignoring (selective amnesia?) other, conflicting, regulation Continue reading “Of Chicken Taxes, CAFE, and gas guzzlers”
Two abreastness
Another excellent, as usual, Legally Speaking with Bob Mionske, Two-by-two, covers the two abreast issue, covering specifically a situation in Wisconsin. Here’s the low-down on Arizona law: Continue reading “Two abreastness”
2007 Traffic Fatalities by type
Cyclists’ fatalities represent less than 2% of the 41,059 traffic deaths (click on chart to view full-size).
Source: NHTSA 2007 Traffic Safety Annual Assessment – Highlights
Ding Dong TIME is dead
…for now, anyway. Backers are vowing to revive it. Continue reading “Ding Dong TIME is dead”
2007 Fatality Stats
The NHTSA released 2007 traffic stats last week. Summary .pdf Continue reading “2007 Fatality Stats”
More Drilling?
I think any additional drilling for oil should be done only on the precondition that the additional supply would be offset by a decrease in demand (i.e conservation). That way, it won’t just get pissed away on increasing domestic demand, like what happened in the mid-1980’s when a huge amount of new supply pushed prices way down and ushered in the SUV era. Continue reading “More Drilling?”
Yet another cycling is dangerous story
With gas prices the way they are, stories about cycling in mainstream press abound. As I have pointed out before (see Media Bias) these stories for mass consumption generally paint a one-sided cycling-is-dangerous story. Despite my high hopes for the journalistic balance of the Wall Street Journal (news that is. I don’t expect balance in the editorial content), Rhonda Rundle’s story from August 1, 2008 fell into the same familiar pattern. The title, Risking Life and Limb, Riding a Bike to Work in L.A., should have been a give away Continue reading “Yet another cycling is dangerous story”
MAG Traffic deaths
Here is and Arizona Republic story about more crash statistics. This dataset is from a MAG (Maricopa Association of Governments) Transportation Safety Committee report, so one assumes it covers Maricopa County (Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Glendale, et al). Continue reading “MAG Traffic deaths”
The assault on the assault on the suburbs
Joel Kotkin is a noted scholar whose general line of thinking is counter to what loosely might be called the New Urbanism. As such he is an ideological soulmate of the WSJ editorial board. Continue reading “The assault on the assault on the suburbs”
Now he doesn’t like the Volt
Jenkin’s column today July 2, 2008 What is GM Thinking (currently available here) bemoans various aspects of GM’s forthcoming plug-in hybrid, the Volt. GM claims it will be available in 2010. Continue reading “Now he doesn’t like the Volt”
The Risk of Dying in One Vehicle Versus Another
I had some trouble digging up this, so for reference here is a link to reports that list driver (driver only, not other occupants, nor non-occupants) death rates per mile driven. Continue reading “The Risk of Dying in One Vehicle Versus Another”
Living Like Ed
Finally, my new book. Continue reading “Living Like Ed”
Gas Guzzler Tax
Decades ago, harkening back to the oil shocks of the 1970’s, the US Congress instituted what would seem to be a reasonable idea of discouraging gas guzzlers. Vehicles below 22mpg are slapped with a special tax, usually referred to as the gas guzzler tax ( the legislation was called: The Energy Tax Act of 1978). The tax is collected by the manufacturer or importer, and is paid by the first buyer.
An economist would refer to such a tax as a disincentive to guzzling gas (actually a disincentive to producing/buying gas guzzling vehicles).
As is usual, what would seem to be a good idea is destroyed by spineless politicians and weaselly lobbyists.
Therefore, SUVs (light truck), of course, are exempt 🙂
In 2005, about 170M was collected. There are untold hundreds of millions of dollars of foregone revenue due to the SUV loophole.
Source: TRANSPORTATION ENERGY DATA BOOK: EDITION 26–2007, Tables 4.20 and 4.21
(a treasure trove of energy data. Also interesting is the studies on speed vs. mpg — generally vehicles peak around 50mph).
Mejia guilty of neg hom and hit-and-run in death of Walmsley
This is remarkable only in that the county attorney sought negligent homicide charges…
From an earlier azcentral story “On May 2, 2007, Mejia was arrested after deputies obtained a search warrant and gathered evidence from a Ford F-350 pickup truck linked to the hit-and-run suspect” . The article doesn’t mention any allegations of evidence tampering(?).
Arizona Superior Court Docket CR2007-006287, All case minutes. Here’s the Warrant to search the large 2007 pickup truck involved. Sentencing Minute from 6/17/2008 — I guess fairly standard, the charges are deemed “non-dangerous” and thus you can get a light sentence the negligent homicide is an F4 (class 4 felony; smaller number are more serious). One oddity was the hit-and-run was listed as an F3, whereas it should have been an F2 (because the defendant clearly caused the collision by driving on the wrong side of the road).
There are a lot of case minutes, including a request to be released early from probation, and numerous requests to revoke probation; finally in the 4/18/2014 minute “Defendant admits violation of probation for condition 1” (whatever that is, i can’t find it in the sentencing minute). It doesn’t seem like anything bad happened.
Mejia TR-200701627 speeding 2/28/2007 in Avondale Muni; dismissed w/driving school; a couple of months before he caused the fatal crash.
These cases from 2013/14 seem to have something only to do with the original case’s restituation, not a new criminal beef: CR2013-462094 and CR2014-110154
==========================================
Avondale man gets 3 years in cyclist’s hit-run death
==========================================
Arizona Republic, The (Phoenix, AZ)-June 20, 2008
Author: Brent Whiting, The Arizona RepublicAn 18-year-old Avondale man has been sentenced to three years in prison for killing a cyclist in a hit-and-run traffic crash.
Victor Manuel Mejia, who pleaded guilty to charges of negligent homicide and leaving the scene of a serious injury accident, also was placed on a five-year probationary term.
The sentence was handed down last Friday in Maricopa County Superior Court after relatives of Mejia and the victim, Bob Walmsley, were offered a chance to address the judge.
Walmsley, 65, of Sun City West, was killed April 9, 2007, while he and other cyclists were pedaling on 99th Avenue in the Southwest Valley, south of Interstate 10 near Southern Avenue.
He was hit by the driver of a pickup truck who was traveling north on 99th Avenue and was trying to pass another vehicle. The driver fled after striking Walmsley, according to sheriff’s investigators.
On May 2, 2007, Mejia was arrested after deputies obtained a search warrant and gathered evidence from a Ford F-350 pickup truck linked to the hit-and-run suspect.
Walmsley, a cycling enthusiast, moved to Arizona in 2000 after retiring in California as an engineer and computer programmer.
Wither gas tax?
Jenkin’s column, The Coming Oil Investment Boom, June 4, 2008 was really just a restating of the old maxim “the best solution for high oil prices is high oil prices”. But near the end he seems to agree with Al Gore’s idea (a revenue neutral gas tax, offsetting payroll taxes): Continue reading “Wither gas tax?”