New enforcement of laws causes problems

The problem of speeding and the breaking of other traffic laws has gotten much worse through the years. The main reason is that the police have done nothing about it. People speed, go through red lights, cross double lines and engage in all kinds of other dangerous road behavior and the cops don't do anything.

Why? Our cops suffer from the desire to be liked. It's the same thing our legislators suffer from. Everybody wants to be liked. Nobody wants to do the right thing. Nobody wants to do his job. Cops are afraid to give people tickets. Our political leaders are afraid to pass and enforce laws that are for the well-being of the community.

So what did the state expect when it started actually enforcing the laws? Everybody got mad. The state and the city hadn't enforced the laws for so long, many people had forgotten that we were supposed to be a law-abiding society. They feel they are wronged if given a ticket for speeding or drunken driving. It's gotten out of hand and now the politicians are experiencing the results of their having let it get out of hand. If our traffic laws and other laws had been enforced, then you wouldn't be experiencing this mini-revolt by those who believe in lawlessness.

The police and the politicians are reaping what they have sown.

Kay Gleason

[Quotables] "It's the first time I've experienced such a strong sense of support from communities. It's not just giving money; it's providing donations of furnishings for a children's room." Virginia Lowell State librarian, on the community effort to open a public library in Kapolei. "The act of actually removing weeds is not wonderful, but eradicating the weeds to promote the growth of native plants is exciting." Steve Seller Former assistant director of the Natural Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai, who was hired by the state to help clear the alien plant miconia from Hawaii's native forests after losing his pre-Sept. 11 job as a restaurant manager.

Some speed limits are artificially low

The article in the Star-Bulletin (Jan. 12) about police ticketing a state traffic camera van shows the start of a turf war between the agencies, with the Honolulu Police Department saying that an officer's discretion is necessary to properly issue a speeding ticket.

I witnessed HPD's discretion last week when, after dodging the camera vans lurking along the Pali Highway, I returned to Kailua and encountered the 25 mph speed zone approaching Castle Hospital (45 mph in the opposite direction). HPD appeared from nowhere and, even though I was traveling at a speed that was appropriate for a 4-lane divided rural highway, he wrote me a $152 citation for going twice the speed limit.

Today I returned to the scene of the crime and adjusted my speed to exactly 25 mph. All I saw was a large SUV's grill several feet from my rear bumper and angry faces staring at me while passing in the right lane (I normally turn left at the hospital).

Until these ridiculous, artificially low speed limits are increased, traffic is going to be in turmoil. And if anyone gets stuck behind a grey Honda in Kailua, now you know why.

Thomas Sanders
Kailua

Drivers should stop whining, follow the law

I don't understand all the hullabaloo and letters to the editor about using cameras to catch those who violate traffic laws.

I thought laws were to help drivers to drive safely and avoid accidents -- and for us all to obey.

If these speeders and red-light runners writing letters would follow traffic laws like the rest of us, they wouldn't have to worry about being caught on camera.

I say keep the cameras rolling, and maybe after these violators pay enough fines or temporarily lose their licenses they will start obeying all traffic laws and we will have safer highways and save some lives.

Gregory W. Busher
Kailua

New Zealanders are used to cameras

I think everyone who is complaining about the traffic cameras should just get over it. I've lived in New Zealand for two years now and traffic cameras are a fact of life here. No one throws tantrums, or throws rocks at or gives the finger to camera operators.

I was home in Hawaii for Christmas and had no problem with driving the speed limit. The speed limits are there for a reason. I'm 24 years old; I learned how to obey the law a long time ago. As for the politicians who complain, they are just afraid that they too will have to follow the laws, since now they can't persuade a cop not to write a ticket.

Come on, people. Traffic cameras are going to save lives.

Kyle Margenau
Hamilton, New Zealand

SUVs take detour past safety standards

Columnist Betsy Hart (Star-Bulletin, Jan. 18) says it's "time for a fight" because she thinks increasing vehicle efficiency means less safety. I hope Hart also is ready to fight over the fact that light trucks (including SUVs and Hart's beloved minivan) don't meet safety standards that cars do.

In the 1970s, the government required "crumple zones" and other safety features to save lives. When Detroit bamboozled the government into allowing many passenger vehicles to be regulated as trucks, they did an end run around these safety requirements.

This lack of safety doesn't endanger just Hart and her family -- it endangers everyone else in passenger cars. A 1996 study found that 2,000 Americans a year die because they were hit by SUVs or other trucks, when they would have survived if they'd been hit by cars of the same weight as the trucks that hit them. Big vehicles didn't kill these people -- sloppy engineering and lack of government oversight did.

Hart also doesn't seem to have given any thought to SUVs' increased risk of rollovers. A General Motors engineer said in a recent interview that SUVs are the only vehicles whose center of gravity becomes higher as you load them. Consumer Reports suggests that SUV owners not fill some SUVs with cargo: Doing so exceeds the rated safe load, something not true of most cars.

Many others like Hart are trying to use high-school physics to solve complex problems in structural and safety engineering. Size is only one factor in safety. Her paranoid insistence on driving a fortress only endangers her and others; do we really need a new arms race?

Mike Morton
Mililani

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