If you're hitting the road for the holiday weekend, you're probably already prepared to scan the horizon for Ford Crown Victorias lying in wait.
But if you're in New Jersey, Ohio or Maryland, you'll want to keep one finger hovering over the cruise control's cancel button at all times. They're the worst places to drive, according to the National Motorists Association, which recently ranked conditions in all states (see the full list here) according to these 17 criteria:
- Speed traps per capita (the number of speed traps listed on SpeedTrap.org indexed to population).
- Does the state have "driver responsibility" fees?
- Does the state have mayor's courts?
- Does the state authorize the use of roadblocks?
- What are the freeway speed limits?
- Does the state have red-light cameras?
- Does the state have speed cameras?
- Are there toll roads in the state?
- Is a jury trial available for traffic violations?
- Is trial by declaration (asserting a defense in writing without appearing in court) available?
- Is the state a member of the Non-Resident Violator Compact?
- Is the state a member of the Driver License Compact?
- Are radar detectors banned in the state?
- Does the state have a primary seat-belt law?
- Are there adult helmet laws in the state?
- Are there move-over laws in the state?
- Is cell phone use while driving banned?
New Jersey ranks seventh-worst in the speed-trap category. But it was the state's traffic laws that put New Jersey atop the list.
New Jersey lost points for using roadblocks, denying speeders jury trials and capping the highway speed limit at 65 mph, according to the motorists group. More than half of U.S. states have maximum highway speed limits of 70 mph or higher. In fairness to New Jersey, though, states that are more densely populated tend to have lower speed limits. Rhode Island and Massachusetts, the two most densely populated states after New Jersey, also have statewide 65 mph limits on their freeways.
"We think that cities are basically using some speeding laws to make money and they are not improving safety at all," says Aaron Quinn, a spokesman for the motorists group.
The organization, which takes a libertarian view of traffic laws, was founded in 1982 as part of an effort to fight against a nationwide 55 mph speed limit.
It conducted its worst-places study for the first time this year in part to examine the belief that fiscally challenged municipalities would be particularly motivated to enforce traffic laws during holidays to raise revenues, rather than simply to keep roads safe.
"It is not exactly a well-kept secret that many traffic laws, enforcement practices, and traffic courts are more about generating revenue and political posturing, than they are about traffic safety," Jim Baxter, the organization's president, said in a prepared statement.
There is some evidence to back up the group's claims. Earlier this year, Michael Makowsky, an assistant professor at Towson University, and George Mason University professor Thomas Stratmann released a study of Massachusetts traffic stops showing that strapped towns and cities were more likely to issue speeding tickets, particularly to out-of-towners who don't pay the areas' municipal taxes. Drivers from other towns had a 10% higher chance of getting a ticket, while drivers with out-of-state plates were 20% more likely to be ticketed.
Those findings echoed an earlier study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which found that municipalities issued significantly more tickets in years after their revenue declined.
"Our results suggest that tickets are used as a revenue-generation tool rather than solely a means to increase public safety," report co-authors Gary Wagner, an economist at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Thomas Garrett, a researcher at the St. Louis Fed, said of their July 2007 study.
Increased ticketing isn't just about padding town coffers, however. In a follow-up study that Makowsky and Strattman conducted, the economists found that increased ticketing does reduce the number of traffic accidents. So perhaps ticketing does make drivers safer, as well as making towns richer.
