Dakota Today

*** Four wheels and taxes

SD Focus on SDPB-TV a few nights ago was on "infrastructure".  You know---highways, water systems, streets, power, communications, etc.  Someplace here SDFOCUS, you may find a transcript or video.

In the discussion of highways and streets, the talk turned to the need to increase taxes on gasoline and fuels for small cars because they areen't using as much fuel as they did years ago and "road" taxes are dropping.

The Republican solution from GOP state Sen Mike Vehle chairman of the SD Senate Transportation Committee is to increase licensing fees on small cars and increase gas taxes.  It is as usual another way to tax those least responsible for highway problems.  It is upside down, backwards and inside-out thinking.

Years ago a South Dakota highway engineer in Pierre estimated that heavy trucks do 15,000 times as much damage per mile of travel as do cars. 

South Dakota and federal fuel taxes amount to 42.4  cents per gallon of gasoline and  48.4  cents per gallon of diesel fuel. A car getting 30 mpg pays about 1.5 cents per mile of travel.  A diesel tractor-trailer combination may get 8 miles per gallon and thus pays about 6 cents per mile of fuel taxes.  So, we might say that trucks pay about 4 times as much per mile as reasonably fuel efficient cars.

The problem with this is obvious in relation to the comparative damages done to highways.  Four times as much is a long, long way from 15,000 times as much.  To match the damage, fuel taxes on over the road diesel for trucks would need to be around $225 per gallon of diesel fuel.  A driver putting 12,000 miles on his car with 1.5 cents taxes per mile pays about $180 per year in taxes.  15,000 times that is about $2,700,000.

Now, as Sen. Vehle said when I called into SDFocus, we can't have truckers paying millions of dollars per year in fuel taxes.  Our groceries would get even more expensive, etc. etc.  Well yes, but perhaps it is time to start moving heavy stuff on rails instead of highways if we are to be cognizant of real costs of unconscionable subsidies to particular influential industries.  And, we might better look at increasing heavy truck taxes than drooling over increasing taxes on the small cars sensible people drive.

Global warming is also a factor in all of this, but that adds even more complexity to this.

And, complexity is just not handled well by Republican legislators and Republican administrators.  When I mentioned on SDFocus that limiting wheel taxes to the first four wheels  is also nonsensical, Sen. Vehle said it is just too hard to count past four.

Actually, I think even they can figure out a way to get the true number of wheels for all vehicles and trailers.  The current inability to count past four is peculiarly regressive even for South Dakota.

Take time to think about what may appear to make some sense when you hear it from officials and politicians.  You may find it actually is nonsense and irrelevancy in relation to the real problems.  Resist increasing road taxes on light vehicles.  There absolutely, positively has to be a better way to fund road building and repair.

Of course, Sioux Falls, is concerned about walkers, runners, and bicycle riders not paying any road taxes at all, so the city has tacked on a 1 cent sales tax on groceries.  That is also not the way to go.

[[[ Please note, I made some corrections to above after I saw the SD Focus show again. Statements I noted were made by Mark Vehle rather than Sec. Darin Bergquist of SD Dept. of Transportation.  Sorry about my confusion.  I do wish SD Focus would spend an additional 50 cents or so on each participant and put a paper name tag in front of them that stays there all the way through the program. --- Doug Wiken, June 3, 2013 ]]]]

*** Stay tuned even if you think tree huggers should pay taxes just for hanging around-- Doug Wiken

Related articles

Oregon Proposal to Tax Fuel Efficient Cars Gains Speed

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Tax per gallon, or per mile?

Breaking: New Jersey considering electric vehicle tax

*** NHTSA-BIA BAT Mobile visits Winner,SD.

This is my second try at this post.  Goldenwest internet service croaked before I could post the previous effort and TypePad saved the title, but not the text.  Anyway, on Sunday, August 26. 2012, I was surprised to see on Winner's Taft St. a truck van as large as a school bus with about two-foot high letters reading "POLICE" in blue and red and near the rear of the van was "BAT-BReath Alcohol Testing".  I was interested when I saw that because roughly 40 years ago I worked as Assistant Director and Public Information Officer for the South Dakota Alcohol Safety Program (SD:ASAP). That was a federally funded highway safety demonstration project.  South Dakota was one of the 30 or 40 across the country.  We may have been the only state project.  The rest may have been city and county efforts.  My memory fails me on that.

SD:ASAP was kind of a pioneer in gaining data and presenting data concerning drunken and impaired driving in South Dakota.  Our efforts coupled with approval from the SD Legislature resulted in state laws requiring blood alcohol tests of victims and drivers in fatal alcohol-related highway crashes.  The first year data indicated 68% of the fatal crashes involved alcohol-impairment and a few more crashes in remote areas without coroners may have brought the total percentage closer to 75%.  It was bad enough at 68%. 

With that kind of background, I could not resist a photo of the vehicle shown below.

Click on image for a larger version.  I talked to the staff in the vehicle.  They said this was one of three of these in the US running under support of NHTSA, BIA, and tribes.  The system includes the newest breathalyzer technology and blood test capability coupled to a lot of electronic data and communication equipment.  Also a jail at the rear of the vehicle.

I did some searching for more information this morning before GWTC and TypePad ate my post. The information below related directly to the vans and the extent of the problem;

A new tool being deployed this year is the BAT (Breath Alcohol Testing) mobile, four of which were delivered in November to three OJS law enforcement districts based in Billings, Mont., Albuquerque, N.M., and Muscogee, Okla., for use by tribal law enforcement. The districts serve
77 federally recognized tribes, with a combined population of 581,756, in seven states.
The 40-foot long mobile units, which cost approximately $300,000 apiece, use state-of-the art lighting, camera and communications systems. Each has an Intoxilyzer 8000 to precisely measure breath alcohol levels, a containment cell to transport suspects and an interior camera to
produce court-quality videos of the testing process. Each unit also is decorated on the outside with colors and design elements that reflect American Indian culture, with police identification
on the back and sides, and has space on the back for a user-tribe’s seal. The units were manufactured by Farber Specialty Vehicles of Ohio.
 

According to the NHTSA’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis, in the five-year period from 2002 to 2006, 3,262 Native Americans lost their lives in motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those, 1,864 (or 57 percent) involved an alchohol-impared driver or motorcycle operator who
was at or above the legal limit of .08.
However, impaired driving is one of the deadliest problems not just in Indian Country, but in America. The NHTSA estimates that in 2007 there were approximately 13,000 total fatalities in crashes involving a driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08 or higher. And the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that there were about 1.5 million DWI
(driving while impaired) arrests in 2007 – an average of 167 arrests per hour.   Source Link for this information

The PDF file below has interesting data, charts and maps conerning the damage and costs of fatal alcohol-related crashes on several Native Reservations in the US.

NHTSA, BIA, Highway Safety Plan (PDF)

As you can see from the above, alcohol sales cost taxpayers millions or billions per year in needless highway, vehicle, prison, jail, adjudification expenses needless otherwise.  Roughly half your vehicle insurance bill results because of drunken driving.

After 40 years of paying some attention to these and other social issues, I have concluded that there are two things which might actually significantly reduce alcohol-related crashes without enormous expense.  One of these is to require that licenses be required to purchase alcohol and those licenses would act as a debit card which could only be refreshed at County Treasurer offices.  The ID number on these cards and a dealer ID number would have to be etched or stamped permanently on every can or bottle purchased.  Part two of this would require that one week to the day following an Alcohol-related fatal crash in any state, all businesses selling alcohol would be closed for one day and a notice prominently placed to indicate why they are closed for that day with information on the fatal crash included.   The liquor industry would sober up about responsibility to stop fueling alcoholics addiction and also to stop drumping drunks out onto the highways.

There is no reason that responsible sober drivers and car owners should pay such a huge price to keep an irresponsible, unnecessary industry afloat.

*** Stay tuned and drive sober and be thankful for the halo effect that surrounds these vans--Doug Wiken

 

 

** 2/10 inch rain and lightning and AT&T cellphones near dead again at Winner, SD

[[[[ Update of Tuesday June 26, 2012-- AT&T cellphones started working late Sunday night and worked yesterday and are performing well today here in Winner.  I received a call yesterday from AT&T and they indicated they had two engineers or technicians here in Winner and believed they had solved the problems.  I hope that is the case.  People rely on their cellphones for emergencies and reliability is a key for that.  Thanks also to the SDPUC for following up on this --- Doug Wiken ]]]]

This morning,  AT&T cellphones again would not work inside our house in Winner, SD.  Outside of the house, garbled connections were possible.  Now at about 2 PM, calls can be made and received out at farm even though no "bars" are shown with antenna icon.

We were awakened with rain and thunder last night.  Not sure if there is a connection or not, but it might be time for somebody who actually knows something to get serious about intermittant AT&T cellphone service in Winner, SD.

Now to use the landline to call company arriving from Rochester, NY to see if their Verizon phones are in a service area.

*** Stay tuned and best stay next to a fan or A/C.  Weather is hot and humid. --- Doug Wiken

*** Does 150,000 cu ft per second on Missouri exceed flow over Niagara Falls?

KELO news today indicated that the flow through the Oahe Dam is now or will soon be 150,000 cubic feet per second.  A website indicates that the water flow over Niagara Falls may be 200,000 cu ft / second, but probably averages around 100,000 cu ft per second during the summer tourist season.

Wikipedia on Niagara Falls

My wife and I had two opportunities to view Niagara Falls.  The first time, the water flow was shut off nearly completely.  The second time, the falls were completely fogged in.  Now about 40 years later, the Missouri Main Stem Dams are dumping as much or more through the dams as now flows OVER the Niagara Falls.  More water of the Niagara River goes through generators and other diversions.

An ad that SD Tourism is not running yet.

Click on image for a larger more readable version

Maybe that puts the current Misssouri River water flowing through our South Dakota dams in a bit better perspective.  The photo ad was an idea from a neighbor.  He noted that his (and my intention too) is not to make fun of the people suffering from the damages and losses consequent to  the water releases.

*** Stay tuned, and may the flow be with you --- Doug Wiken

** TT RIP, Long live DWS

As I may have indicated, Salon Online Magazine has had a good forum they called Table Talk since 1995, but are shutting it down June 10, 2011.  TT was often a source of laughs and insight and at times, of information collected in better ways than anyplace else.  We might never have gone to war in Iraq if US Senators actually checked the information found there prior to the invasion.  I will miss Table Talk and it is a loss for the whole country.

Anyway, a bunch of the Table Talkers are moving to a forum called "Drive We Said".  It appears hospitable and may gradually take the place of TT for many former posters there.  It will take me awhile to get used to the differences however.  Whatever else can be said about Table Talk, the forum software that evolved there is the best I have seen anyplace.

DWS rotates banners, and I hope the one I slopped together below, will show up there now and then giving SD a little publicity.  Certainly a lot of people drive to Mt. Rushmore.

The site can be found  here  DRIVE WE SAID HOMEPAGE

[[[ Note: May 22, 2011:I put a few more images in the continuation of this post .]]]

Unlike Table Talk, this is a free site..contributions welcome however.

** Stay tuned even if you never, ever read Salon Premium, and never darkened the doors of Table Talk --- Doug Wiken

** Happy New Year and a small riddle of sorts

Wish I had a half dozen end of the year special lists prepared, but I don't.  I have looked at what some mainstream newspapers and other media believe are most important stories and they suggest that crime (and oddity) is the major news.  A neighbor suggests that perhaps the real big stories are those that are ignored by the conventional media because they don't aid their largest advertisers or because the actual knowledge of personnel in those media is terribly limited.  A commenter on the Charlie Rose show suggested something like "real news is that which governments and powers suppress or wish to suppress".

But for now, a modest little riddle.  It sort of fits into a discussion that has devolved into a discussion of the meanings of words at Mt. Blogmore...specifically in that case "tea baggers".

Here it is:  What Nebraska city or town has a two-word name with both words meaning the same thing even if that was very likely not the intention of the original namers?  No prizes, but you may get your comment added here if you get it right... or find a better example for that matter.

[[[ Note:  Gideon Oakes  who comments at Mt. Blogmore (see  his comment) correctly guessed "Long Pine" as the town.  If you work crossword puzzles, you will often see those two words as clues for each other.  "To long for her" or "to pine for her"  are words for country western songs.  There may be other towns in other states that share this kind of double double meaning when taken out of the town name context.--- Doug Wiken Jan 2, 2010 ]]]]

** Stay tuned for the fascinating answer or just for a break in your day next year -- Doug Wiken

**Pseudo Road Photo from near Winner, SD April 4, 2009

Winner, South Dakota, seems to be in kind of a radar hole. It can be raining or snowing like crazy here and it may not show up on KELO or KSFY radar. South Dakota Safe Driving site has photos from cameras on highways and interstate, but none from Winner or Tripp County.

 Below is a road photo of the kind we need from here. Note the extra data from the airport weather. That kind of info should also be a part of the actual road photos. Click on the image for a larger version. It is however mostly just more snow.

 I haven't checked any sites for road conditions here, but my guess is "No driving recommended" would be appropriate. Even so, I have to slog through it for some groceries. My back has not recovered from shoveling the previous foot of snow that was finally cleaned and melted off most roads, driveways, and sidewalks. This is a generous resupply that I don't think we really needed today or tomorrow.

***Stay tuned and let powers that be know we need a real highway camera near Winner, SD-- Doug Wiken

**Wrecks-- Nissan 300ZX and SD Vehicle Titles and Registrations "system"

57FIND  Below are a couple photos indicating what happens to a neat 1986 Nissan 300ZX when a pickup truck or stock trailer with 8 cattle in it rolls over the top of it. Following the photos are a couple observations on the "improved" SD Title and registration system. First from the front driver side: And from the rear driver's side: Both drivers were very unlucky to find an unsanded highway over-pass several hours after it started to become slick but also very lucky to both walk away from the crash. We are also now finding out that if you own a car that is becoming a collector or classic vehicle, you want to check current values and consider collision insurance updates. We have been more than a little surprised by what has happened to prices of the 300ZX vehicles since we started working on this one.

 More significant perhaps is an update on the apparently still troubled new vehicle registration and title system. My son was driving back to leave the Z car here for the winter and return with a Jeep which works a lot better in snow and ice. I went in to local court house to get vehicle stickers on several vehicles. No matter what the progress reports on the system are, this system is still very slow compared to the old system and apparently if comments from other court houses are to be believed is no where close to being capable of using online registration which was one of the reasons claimed for the change.

 Licensing that used to take a few minutes can now drag into something closer to an hour. One very agravatiing change is that if you have not licensed a vehicle in the previous year and the full year has not elapsed, the new system will not prorate and add on the days before a full year registration. It will charge for the whole previous year even if only 10 days remain until the new licensing year. I was not really going to pay $94 to license a jeep on Friday when a couple weeks from now, the registration would be $47.

So, we did not have a licensed Jeep for my son to drive back to Rapid City so he took back a cold-blooded diesel best suited for winters in southern Arizona.

 Legislators need to consider making vehicle registration prorated by the day. Surely a computer system can divide the total yearly cost by 365 and generate a system that can bill for 375 or 450 days without tacking on a whole year of charges for vehicle parked for work until repaired.

The desire to grub out extra dollars without regard to fairness or logic is more of the upside-down inside-out tax and squander logic of South Dakota Republican administrations who then turn around an claim they have "no new taxes".

**Stay tuned for a post on the wheel tax backwardness-- Doug Wiken

** Highway crash deaths.. counts versus rates and NPR with Robert Reich

Robert Reich on NPR August 20, 2008 noted that the number of US traffic deaths is down. He also noted that roads and cars are not a lot better because both highway funding and money available for new vehicle purchases are down because of the dreadful US economy. He predicted that next year with an even more rotten economy would be the "safest year yet" or something much like that.

 Much as I usually appreciate former Labor Secretary Reich's comments, he was using the wrong kind of statistic for his comments. There are several ways to look at crash fatalities, but a simple count is probably not the best and as used by Reich almost misleading if not irrelevant. Using rates such as crash deaths per million miles of vehicle travel or crash deaths per registered vehicle, etc. provide more relevant and explanatory information. A declining economy may also influence the rate of crash deaths, but I would guess that measure would not change in the same way the raw count data has or will.

 Factors which might produce an actual statistically significant change in the rate are more likely to involve increased and more effective enforcement of drunken driving laws, reduction of the speed limit to 55 or 60 miles per hour, uniform and better highway signing, increased seat belt use, etc.

 More useful information than that presented in the way Reich did today can be found at the links below:
 Wikepedia general information on Road Traffic Safety
 Governors Highway Safety Officers Association on Historic crash data
The GHSA has an agenda, but the information is useful anyway even if it is aimed at showing these officials may actually earn some of their income.

 And below thanks to John is a link to a story that only relates somewhat to the story on crash data in a way that shows the need for separate data on intentional and unintentional injury.
 Hell hath no fury like a drunken woman in a car

 

**Meanwhile, stay tuned and remember a slogan I wrote for the SD Highway Safety program about 40 years ago, "Good Neighbors Drive Sober"--- Doug Wiken

** Hell Not Frozen Over, but Paradise is Ablaze

Not much of a post, but "Hell not frozen over, but Paradise Ablaze" seemed like an interesting title for a post.

Fires in California and elsewhere are not a joke however.

Paradise to be Evacuated because of Fires

We might perhaps wonder if the US might be in better shape to stop, control, or prevent such fires if the National Guard units were in the US instead of Iraq. We might also wonder if the cheapest form of terrorist destruction might be a match and a strong wind on a hot dry day in a forested area.

 But, don't telephone any discussion of that idea, because FISA has been changed compliments of our gutless wonders in Congress ready to sell out the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in their appeal to the most mindless parts of the population which those same Congress critters are unwilling to meaningfully educate or inform on actual issues that go beyond 15 second sound bites. Your telephone is a long-distance recording device

And, parts of the Bush administration are advertising for contractors to scan the internet for terrorists.  That way government activities that are normally forbidden in functioning democracies can be done anyway by private contractors.  Not sure how they can handle all the information since the administration was unable to put together a dozen or fewer FBI reports which indicated a terrrorist strike was immient.

. *** Stay tuned even if it is too hot and humid to actually think for very long--- Doug Wiken