A few weeks ago I published a graph showing that our roads have actually become safer as more and more Americans use cell phones. Chatting on the phone is one thing, but surely texting behind the wheel is another. After all, we keep hearing that texting-while-driving is worse than drunk driving. And legislatures around the [...]
Posts under ‘MINUTEMEN UPDATE’
Cell phone crackdown starts tomorrow in NYC [Revenue enhancement]
If you’ve got some speeding, drag racing, or other type of anti-social behavior you’ve wanted to engage in on New York City’s roads, tomorrow might be a good day to do it.
Why? Because the NYPD is going to is going to spend most of its energy ticketing drivers who use cell phones.
Gothamist reports the last [...]
Should you lose your license because of a parking ticket?
Reader John emailed to report some alarming news for Michigan motorists.
It seems that Rep. Roy Schmidt of Grand Rapids has introduced legislation that would bar the Secretary of State (Michigan’s DOV) for issuing or renewing licenses to people who have three or more outstanding parking tickets.
Harsh.
I’ve always viewed metered parking as a kind of cat-and-mouse game. [...]
Forget the coke tax, how much money would a salad tax raise?
Since backers of the soda tax can’t seem to convince anyone that a cent-per-ounce surcharge is going to solve America’s obesity problem, they’ve decided to switch to new talking points. Now the sushi-and-tofu types who are behind this scheme are painting a soda tax as the cure to just about every state, city and local [...]
Drivers understand that cell phones just aren’t that dangerous
Measuring the relative danger that different distractions pose to motorists is really hard. Why? Because the dangers posed by different distractions vary tremendously depending on the driver and the intensity of the distraction.
Take kids for example. Is a child sitting peacefully in the backseat likely to pose a big distraction? Probably not. But one that [...]
Forget the soda tax, it’s time for a salad tax!
For the last few weeks, the tofu-and-sushi-eating crowd has been pushing to slap new taxes on soda and juice drinks in an effort to regulate what we eat. They say that sugary drinks are a public health issue because drinking too many can make you fat.
It is certainly true that consuming excessive amounts of any [...]
American style tipping comes to London [progress]
As anyone who has dined out in Europe knows all too well, service in European restaurants is not exactly the same caliber that it is back in America.
Waiters are uniformly rude, slow to take your order and seemingly determined to serve you cold food. Once you do get your meal, they avoid checking in on [...]
The revolutions we like, and the ones we don’t
A few weeks back, supporters of the ill-fated Green Revolution in Iran petitioned to have the Empire State Building lit in green during the week of the United Nations General Assembly. The supporters wanted the lighting as a show of solidarity with the Iranian opposition during a time when the world’s leaders were gathered in [...]
General Motors is dead, long live Walmart! [polls]
There was a time when General Motors = America. This was true both in terms of corporate might and popular imagination. But those days have long past. Today General Motors is literally owned by America! But I digress.
With GM now lying lifeless on the dust heap of history, what mega corporation best represents America today?
According [...]
Don’t worry, Starbucks doesn’t expect you to drink its bad new instant coffee.
So the big news today—at least in the Starbucks at the corner—was that the new instant coffee VIA has finally arrived.
Seeing as I don’t have a coffee maker, I decided to pick some up and give it a shot. The verdict: it sucks, just like all instant coffee.
But that is OK because Americans aren’t supposed to like [...]
