Maryland's third-worst rating is an honor
The Free State can take pride in its ranking as the third-worst state in the nation in terms of its traffic laws and enforcement by the National Motorists Association.
Why? Because the NMA is a fringe group that opposes just about any sensible highway safety measure ever enacted into law. The organization is fervently dedicated to speeders' rights and does all it can to discredit legitimate law enforcement.
This is a little bit like being ranked near the worst in health laws by the nation's tobacco companies.
Comments
The NMA may advocate speeders' rights and discredit legitimate law enforcement, but unfortunately that doesn't mean they don't also have legitimate points. Hard as it may be for you to believe, there are actually times when either the law or the enforcement officials are an @$$, and if that is the case (speed limit arbitrarily dropped just before a speed camera on a road traveled too often by out-of-town people, shortened yellow-light times at red-light-camera-equipped traffic lights, etc.), then the law deserves to be called for the other-word-for-donkey it is.
Posted by: Alexander D. Mitchell IV | May 23, 2009 8:19 AM
Thank you for printing what the National Motorists Association truly is. Just because it has "org" at the end of its internet address does not make it official. I know many scofflaws who point to that website as their absolute right to misbehave on our highways and byways.
Posted by: missnj | May 25, 2009 8:38 AM
I'll agree shorter yellow-lights are extremely dangerous and we must point them out to whoever it is sets the lights. This is an uphill battle.
On the other hand, speed limits are not be as arbitrary as they appear. Could there possibly be a crosswalk ahead? Could there possibly be hidden driveways ahead? There could be a myriad of things up ahead that require a speeding vehicle to give the other guy a chance to make it home alive.
Posted by: missnj | May 25, 2009 8:46 AM
Maryland enforces it's traffic laws? THIS is breaking news. Drove back from the Midwest on Sunday; State Troopers were staked out on the Ohio Turnpike every 10 miles and in a major show of force at that. Not one car here and there. Several in a block.
Wanna know something else? Folks out there in the Midwest heard about this NMA report and Maryland's ranking. Merits of the laws aside, the folks who brought it up to me said that they had no desire to EVER visit Maryland because of it. Why visit a place that only wants to harass you to no end? I wonder if the tourism boards, the rental car companies and the hotels would agree with you that this ranking is a badge of honor.
Posted by: Pete | May 26, 2009 9:39 AM