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Unexplored costs from DPS surcharge harm safety, economy

I've been looking at some historical material related to the oxymoronically named "Driver Responsibility" surcharge, and in a January 2007 report from LBB (large pdf), I ran across a sentence that sums up (in LBB's patented, blame-free bureaucratese) the program's basic flaw:The Driver Responsibility Program imposes surcharges as an incentive for drivers to comply with traffic laws, but does not offer any payment alternatives as a further incentive for drivers to comply with the law.That's exactly it. The program was intended to encourage compliance with the law, but in practice it more often than not provides disincentives for compliance.The theory was a straightforward one: Large financial penalties larded on top of criminal punishments would create disincentives to driving without a license or liability insurance...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 10, 2010 (boomark / email).