The view from Lookout Mountain

Eric Dolson

The Oregon Department of Transportation has apparently decided it wants to make life easier for traffic cops ... and more difficult for the rest of us who drive on public roads, especially on the east side of the mountains.

Under House Bill 2202, and secreted in other bills currently under discussion in the Oregon Legislature, ODOT is working down in Salem to replace Oregon's basic rule.

Right now, speed signs on rural highways are not hard and fast limits. A traffic patrol officer who issues a ticket for speeding still has to prove in court that someone was driving too fast, taking into account the condition of roads, the level of traffic, the time of day, visibility, etc.

In other words, that the driver was violating the "basic rule."

This is a good thing. It is a good thing if government has to work harder to prove you are guilty than you must work to prove your innocence. It kind of levels the playing field, since they have most of the power and experience in court.

ODOT's Stan Porter is lobbying to replace the basic rule with set limits, such as 55 miles per hour on highways, so that people driving two mph or five mph or 10 mph over the limit can be given a ticket.

Worse, Porter is fabricating an argument to make this intrusion into our lives seem more reasonable.

"(The basic rule) means if your are rich, you can drive as fast as you want, and if you hire a good lawyer, you can probably get away with it," he was quoted as saying in the Oregonian. He says Maserati drivers will be able to drive 180 mph.

Mr. Porter is trafficking in hogwash. Because he has no safety issues that would justify his attempt to reach into our wallets, Porter resorts to a little class bigotry.

Take a drive down a Central Oregon highway at 55 mph, the proposed limit. Who is it passing you at 65 or 70 or 75 mph? Maseratis? No, it is working guys in pick up trucks and every day people in SUVs and minivans and Camaros and Hondas. And most of these people are driving quite safely. They are in vehicles that can stop faster, corner better and are more in control than anything produced 20 years ago.

That is why, despite there being more vehicles on the road today, and the elimination of the 55 mph federal speed limit, the number of accidents and deaths per mile traveled has actually declined over the years.

ODOT's Porter knows this. He also knows eliminating the basic rule has nothing to do with traffic safety, nor with equal application of the law. This is simply revenue enhancement scheme, a tax, if you will, to make it easier to raise money from those who drive on public roads.

And despite his deceptions, the average guy will pay more of this tax than anyone else.

If it becomes easy for the government to win in court, police will write more tickets. They will not write tickets to make the roads safer, they will write tickets to generate revenue for their traffic patrols. How many tickets will depend on how much revenue the traffic patrol needs in its budget.

ODOT should stop interfering with speed law enforcement and put more of its lobbying money ­ that's our money, folks ­ into filling a few potholes.