Paper license plates, no headlights...where are the police? (Dallas: buying, DMV)

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by EDS_

1). Driving is not, "particularly bad" in Texas from a safety perspective. Vs. the nation Texas rates near the middle across just about every important driving related safety area. In fact all states that border Texas have significantly higher auto related fatality and serious crash rates than we do. The closest in auto death rates per population is Louisiana at +23% over Texas, NM is +38%.


2). Car insurance is high here for three key reasons:
A). We have a tremendously high number of uninsured and underinsured drivers, the cost burdens imposed by these cadres are significantly socialized into the insurance costs of those who actually buy proper insurance.

B). Texans drive a high/large number of expensive vehicles.

C). Texans suffer exceptionally high dollar amounts of weather related auto damage - wind, flooding and especially hail.

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The bit about one being safer in bad areas vs. good areas is one of those goofy claims that falls into the "true/lies" category. We live in a very nice area in North Dallas. While it's true I'm more likely to be shot and killed in my front yard today than I am to be shot and killed in the Five-Point area that's only because I won't be in Five-Points today. The fact is smoothed for exposure time one is less safe in less safe areas. Any attempt to deflect from that is some combination of dishonest and ignorant.

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Regarding your claims that we should slow down highway drivers for safety sake. And I'll grant this area is really complex but I have to question the theory generally when Florida has much lower (about 15% lower) average posted highway speeds and actual average speeds even lower than that and higher auto fatality rates (about 13% higher per population).

Further, Texas has opened a good number of high speed lane miles over the last number of years and those miles have been very safe........not the bloodbath predicted by anti-car cadres.

I respect your POV here but I think we're going to get lost in the weeds in another "be grateful you don't live in so-and-so" or "it's actually not as bad as you think" conversation.


The point is that the number of people driving without headlights and with fake paper license plates has gone up noticeably and LE doesn't seem to be doing anything about it (from the POV of a mere civilian).


Let's confine our outrage?

[earthisle]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

I respect your POV here but I think we're going to get lost in the weeds in another "be grateful you don't live in so-and-so" or "it's actually not as bad as you think" conversation.


The point is that the number of people driving without headlights and with fake paper license plates has gone up noticeably and LE doesn't seem to be doing anything about it (from the POV of a mere civilian).


Let's confine our outrage?

There's a political dimension to this.

Let's say you drive from Mexico and stay in the US beyond your visa. What do you do with your car? You can't register it. You make a fake paper license plate.

You also can't get insurance, which is why drivers don't get arrested for driving without a license like they do in some states.

The public seems to believe that police aren't doing their job. No, they are given orders to not enforce laws to the full extent.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Regarding your claims that we should slow down highway drivers for safety sake. And I'll grant this area is really complex but I have to question the theory generally when Florida has much lower (about 15% lower) average posted highway speeds and actual average speeds even lower than that and higher auto fatality rates (about 13% higher per population).

Further, Texas has opened a good number of high speed lane miles over the last number of years and those miles have been very safe........not the bloodbath predicted by anti-car cadres.

I've actually never made this claim.

What you need to understand is that danger is a function of conflict points+ Speed.

Highways with few on and off points are fairly safe because while the speed is high, there are few conflict points, turns tend to be gradual etc. The biggest danger is people not paying attention/ falling asleep.

The issue arises when people go way too fast on roads with lots of conflict points. Arterial Roads and city streets. People are pulling in and out constantly, but at a speed that is potentially very deadly. Another dangerous type of road is making streets in denser areas too wide and fast as the speed level that is fatal to peds is not that fast. 10mph of additional speed lowers survival rates at a non linear level.

So anyway I've never ever said the solution to lowering highway deaths is to go from 70 mph to 60mph or whatever. This is a common falsehood put out by the "My Speed over your life" crowd.

If you are going to call us anti-car cadres, at least understand what we are saying, maybe even read a basic book on road and highway design and look at the data.

I'm sorry, but if you are going to call my positions "Anti Car" I'm just going to call your's "Cars at Any Cost" since there is mountains of data that shows that lowering car speeds and road diets save tons of lives and clearly you are interested in preserving your high speeds and saving your 5 min regardless of the cost in lives.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by EDS_

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The bit about one being safer in bad areas vs. good areas is one of those goofy claims that falls into the "true/lies" category. We live in a very nice area in North Dallas. While it's true I'm more likely to be shot and killed in my front yard today than I am to be shot and killed in the Five-Point area that's only because I won't be in Five-Points today. The fact is smoothed for exposure time one is less safe in less safe areas. Any attempt to deflect from that is some combination of dishonest and ignorant.

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This is totally unrelated to any point I was making.

The murder rate in Texas is 5.9 per 100K. Auto Crashes in Texas kill 13.1 per 100k

Now if you consider murders a very high number, 8 or 9 in 10 know their victim. The vast majority of murders are related to domestic violence, gangs, drugs etc.

Car accidents are the opposite. The vast, vast majority of the time it's a stranger that kills you. You only have 2 options for lowering your chances of being killed: Drive less, especially on roads that are dangerous and drive defensibly. Our policies with roads and zoning encourage people to drive more.

The thing is, from a policy standpoint by slowing cars down on dangerous streets and by giving people more non driving options, we can significantly reduce traffic deaths for a large number of people.

So really this has nothing to do with you being in 5 points or not. You are more likely to be killed driving from your north Dallas home to Downtown than if you lived in 5 points and didn't engage in criminal activity.

I get that accidents happen. Just having cars makes life more dangerous. I'm not suggesting we get rid of cars. Thats just fear mongering.

We accept that certain modern conveniences do come with a human cost. People die to bring us the batteries that out laptops use, people die in agg accidents that bring us our food, sure I get it.

But the cost of our current road set up is so high, that to just blow it off seems pretty callus.

Like a very conservative philosophy professor I happen to know once said about traffic deaths "Look, I don't know what exactly the "Acceptable" death rate for autos would look like, I just know that the set up we currently have is morally unacceptable."

I'm not ignoring the benefits of cars either. They have allowed people to have alot of autonomy. I love road trips as much as anyone. Cars allow me to visit remote places that I otherwise never could.

These aren't just random deaths, they are the result of policy which values going 10 mph more than X number of lives. It's the result of favoring auto centrality over human life. It's the sort of policy that decides that cars are the only realistic option for most people. Most people don't have a real choice.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by EDS_

2). Car insurance is high here for three key reasons:
A). We have a tremendously high number of uninsured and underinsured drivers, the cost burdens imposed by these cadres are significantly socialized into the insurance costs of those who actually buy proper insurance.

B). Texans drive a high/large number of expensive vehicles.

C). Texans suffer exceptionally high dollar amounts of weather related auto damage - wind, flooding and especially hail.

B)

Look, I'm not Bernie Bro, but this sort of thing is why there is a legitimate argument why people feel like the top 1% game the system at the cost of the middle.

It does suck that people in the middle have to pay higher insurance rates both to protect the Corvette guy who chooses to over consumes on cars and the guy who who is uninsured but hey, thats car culture for ya.

[lepoisson]

Originally Posted by bigbear63

I'll add more...

4) Out of state plates...on peeps that have been here more than 30 days... I see the same car day after day for months in traffic. The law is clear here but few follow and the rest of us pay the road taxes for them.

I have no idea why people don't get Texas plates. Texas has one of the cheapest and best systems for plates. Maybe the only negative is that TX car insurance rates are higher.

Some states charge you a tax based on the value of the vehicle to register/title the vehicle OR you get a nifty bill in the mail from the county assessor's office.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

I have no idea why people don't get Texas plates. Texas has one of the cheapest and best systems for plates. Maybe the only negative is that TX car insurance rates are higher.

Some states charge you a tax based on the value of the vehicle to register/title the vehicle OR you get a nifty bill in the mail from the county assessor's office.

Well if you have already paid for your registration fee in a different state, it doesn't matter if Texas is cheaper. Most people would instinctively rather wait until they need to renew again to avoid paying a DMV twice.

It might be cheaper than some states, but it's fairly comparable in price to several.

Having two difference offices, the DMV and DPS is a terrible system and very confusing.

Luckily I don't have to go through the process again, but it was not simple or convenient at all.

[RJ312]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

Having two difference offices, the DMV and DPS is a terrible system and very confusing.

Luckily I don't have to go through the process again, but it was not simple or convenient at all.

I agree with this completely. Changing over my license and license plates to Texas was the worst process of any state where I have lived.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by RJ312

I agree with this completely. Changing over my license and license plates to Texas was the worst process of any state where I have lived.

Yep, and even after I explained the process my brother still got sent home because they didn't accept our internet bill for some reason I can't remember. I think it was an issue with going paperless.

The system is incredibly confusing and done weirdly differently than other states.

Texas is pretty middle of the road on registration costs.

I actually wish we used the NY system:

Registration fees start at $26 for a vehicle under
1,650 lbs. and increase by $1.50 for every 100 lbs.
above 1,650lbs

Now of course additional weight to road damage isn't linear like the price increase, but that's a good start.

[turf3]

You cannot register your car in Texas unless you show proof of insurance. Illegal immigrants don't buy car insurance.

Mean time, the police are busy trying to arrest robbers, murderers, rapists, thieves, and the like, so someone driving around with incorrect license plates is low on their priority list.

Next question, please?