A new mayor in New York City, who prefers to take the subway (when he’s not in a private jet) and would prefer that you take the subway—and who apparently sees motorists as cash cows on wheels for a debt-burdened city—made our job easy this year. We probably could have edited an All-Mayor-Mike issue of our annual good guy/bad guy awards story.

But that would have been too easy, and a bit too red, even though we did find something nice and green to say about Mayor Bloomberg and his approach to ye olde diplomatic parking scofflaw stand-off (a stand-off held directly under a NO STANDING OR STOPPING sign, no doubt).

Mayor Mike had some help around the country making bad news for motorists. The year’s biggest domestic news story—over-the-road snipers mistakenly identified by vehicle types (the famous white van and white box truck) with a penchant for shooting people at gas stations—put a grisly spin on the core subjects of concern to Car & Travel. But we leave them to a judgment far worse than a red light.

Our usual suspects—lawmakers in Albany, DOT officials, airline executives—came through as always, making us wince (and, in some cases, applaud and smile). And 2002 was another banner year for distracted, drunken and simply stupid drivers making more news than we know what to do with.

We probably could make this stuff up, but given the world in which we live, drive and travel, that will not be necessary. All we need to do is tell it like it is and call them as we see them.

The Bottle and the Road

The Campus Menace. In April the  National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism released a study about the effects of drinking among U.S. college students. It found that of the 1,445 annual alcohol-related deaths of undergraduates—on average, four per day—1,138, or nearly 80 percent, came as a result of car crashes. A green light to the federal institute (a branch of the National Institutes of Health) for calling attention to this perennial tragedy.

Badge of Shame. In April CNN reported that then-retired NYPD Officer Martin Finkelstein testified in court that he and members of the police officers union had discussed with Officer Joseph Gray ways in which Gray could pass sobriety tests in the wake of his drunk-driving accident in Brooklyn on Aug. 4, 2001, which took four lives. (Gray was eventually convicted of four counts of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years). A red light to these officers for conspiring against justice.

File Under: Faux Pas. In February Newsday reported that Nassau County had to return 320 vehicles seized from drunken drivers because county officials failed to file legal papers on time. At that time Nassau had 1,626 vehicles in storage but had sold only 200, at an average of $583 each, while the storage fees for the seized vehicles totaled more than $250 daily. A red light to the previous county administration for mismanagement.

Catch-Up Kudos

A pair of belated green lights to:

Rudy Popolizio. The director of New York City’s red light camera program retired in October after more than 30 years with the Department of Transportation. His distinguished career, which included responsibility for DOT’s computerized traffic signal system, was marked by fairness and sensitivity to motorist concerns.

Nils Bohlin. In the 1950s, this Volvo safety engineer developed the three-point lap/shoulder safety belt, now standard equipment on virtually every new vehicle. He was subsequently sent to the U.S. to promote its adoption in the States. Bohlin was finally inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame on Sept. 21—the same day he passed away at age 82.

The Innovators

An Alternative Future. Automakers, the U.S. Energy Department and the European Union committed billions of dollars last year to spur development of vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Success may be decades away, but any serious effort to overturn oil barrels and set America on the road to energy independence deserves our support. To conserve our green-light resources, we single out DaimlerChrysler for pledging to introduce the first fleet of fuel cell passenger cars in the U.S. and Europe later this year, and General Motors, which has set out to truly reinvent the automobile with its Hy-wire concept car, “the world’s first driveable vehicle,” says GM, “to combine environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel cell power with new high-tech drive-by-wire controls technology.”

Low-Cost Benefits. A five-year trial at high-crash intersections in Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich., has shown that a small investment can result in dramatic traffic safety benefits. Our green light recipient, AAA Michigan, spearheaded the Road Improvement Demonstration Program, a public/private partnership that reduced injuries by 46 percent and crashes by 26 percent. The program relied on low-cost traffic safety enhancements such as re-timed traffic signals, larger signal heads and dedicated left-turn lanes.

A Simple Plan. Three researchers at Virginia’s NASA Langley Research Center, mindful of the tragic death of a colleague’s infant accidentally left in a car, have used aircraft industry technology to develop a system that alerts drivers when a child is left in a car seat. Their device transmits a radio signal from a sensor placed under the cushion of the car seat to a receiver that can fit on a key chain. A warm green light to the inspired Langley trio.

Pols Apart on Safety

Albany lawmakers merited both green lights and red lights last year for action taken—and not taken—in the legislative session.

Yea, Albany. High up on the plus side was passage late last year of a law instituting a graduated driver licensing requirement for teens (see story on page 18). Also praiseworthy was earlier approval by the Legislature of “Sean’s Law,” named for the victim of a drunk-driver crash, which allows judges to suspend the junior license or learner’s permit of a minor charged with a DWI violation until his next court appearance.

State lawmakers also earned a green light for resisting pressure to expand red light camera programs outside of New York City before a thorough evaluation of the current programs can be undertaken to determine their fairness and effectiveness.

Nay, Albany. The Legislature’s 2002 record on safety was diminished by its failure once again to pass a measure that would lower the legal limit of a driver’s blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) from the present 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent. Members of the state Senate and Assembly are burdened with a second red light for failing to tackle reform of the state’s no-fault law and deal a blow to insurance fraud costing motorists millions.

Limits of Authority

Informed Citizenry. Shine a green light for Councilman Tommy Avella of Queens for introducing a measure in the New York City Council that requires the DOT to provide individuals and organizations with written explanations why their requests for neighborhood traffic control devices are turned down.

Overreaching Enforcers. But deliver a red light to the city DOT for its ill-considered proposal of installing cameras on the backs of buses and at bus stops to snap photos of cars and ticket their owners for driving illegally in bus lanes. Oh (big) brother, how far will the city go to cut the fiscal budget deficit?

Parking, Perks and Payments

 In early July the Bloomberg administration, with revenue generation much on its mind, finally made some headway in getting diplomatic scofflaws to cough up parking fine payments. This after the Daily News had previously reported that diplomats owed more than $21.3 million on parking summonses issued between 1997 and 2000, with Egypt, Kuwait and Nigeria topping the list of reprobates.

Compared to those numbers, the $8,139 the Russian Consulate parted with and the $2,688 forked over by Luxembourg are hardly impressive, but more welcome than a hike in some parking fines, which Mayor Bloomberg also effected. In September the State Department, under an agreement reached with the mayor, revoked 185 special license plates from scofflaw diplomats. A green light to the Bloomberg administration for its tough tactics in pursuing these international debtors.

The city also policed its own in terms of parking. In February Mayor Bloomberg slashed by 30 percent the number of government employees with special parking permits. “The city has given out over 50,000 parking permits,” the mayor said. “And there is no reason that 50,000 people should be able to park when the other 8 million people in the city have to pay for their parking.” Here, here!

Hello & Goodbye

Welcome. The Dodgers are long gone but Ralph and Alice Kramden’s Brooklyn apartment at 328 Chauncey St. lives on in reruns of the classic TV comedy series The Honeymooners. And now it’s also celebrated in the county of Kings, where  three out of 11 new “Welcome to Brooklyn” signs at borough entry points include the words “How Sweet It Is!” Other “Welcome to Brooklyn” greetings are coupled with such buoyant messages as “Name It...We Got It” and “Like No Other Place in the World!” A green light to the borough president’s office for lightening up Brooklyn’s signage.

Stay Out! New York City is showing its unwelcome side, at least to those who must drive alone, by maintaining its single-occupant-vehicle ban on crossings into Manhattan below 14th Street. A red light to Mayor Bloomberg for an unjustified extension of the 9/11 emergency restrictions.

The Wild Blue Yonder

Flying Low. A collective red light to the airline industry for responding to the turbulence of our times with a series of wrongheaded steps. Among last year’s off-course actions by the airlines were: ending one-year grace periods on missed flights, making it harder to convert frequent-flier miles into free trips, adding charges for paper tickets and third luggage bags, barring passengers with nonrefundable tickets from flying standby and eliminating commission cuts to travel agents. The latter change, AAA told a congressional committee last year, will hurt consumers in the form of higher travel costs and the loss of travel agency expertise.

Flying Free. To mark the first anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Spirit Airlines didn’t cringe. Instead it offered free flights for the day, an offer that  was gobbled up by 13,400 passengers on 90 flights to 14 cities. This spirited display of patriotic and marketing fervor earns it a  green light in the sky.

Also flying right is the nonprofit Corporate Angel Network (914/328-1313; www.CorpAngelNetwork.org) which operates out of Westchester County Airport in White Plains and arranges free passage for cancer patients to treatment centers using empty seats on corporate jets en route to business meetings.

Field Reports

Blight Spots. In their 2002 travels along the area’s highways and byways, Club traffic engineering staffers have seen it all. Their red-light favorites of roadside deficiencies have included the confusing lane-line road markings at the merger of the northbound Hutchinson Parkway and the westbound Cross County parkway in Westchester County and the annoying thump-thump-thump of aging concrete pavement joints on the Long Island Expressway in eastern Suffolk County.

Bright Spots. Those same Club engineers, however, liked what they saw being done at Manhattan’s Times and Herald squares, where redesign work has included wider sidewalks and turn restrictions to enhanced both pedestrian safety and traffic flow.

 A green light to the city DOT not only for these crossroads-of-the-world projects but for less grandiose steps, such as opening a sixth Safety City in Washington Heights, where young and old improve pedestrian safety skills in a learning environment.

Give Me an I-5!

In May the LA Weekly reported that a renegade good samaritan of the roads had come to light. On Aug. 5, 2001, Los Angeles artist Richard Ankrom had masqueraded as a California Department of Transportation worker and installed helpful additions to a highway sign on the 110 Freeway in Downtown L.A. He added faux-regulation “I-5” and “North” signs directing motorists how to access Interstate 5 at a hectic interchange that had not been signed adequately. “I have taken it upon myself to manufacture and install these missing guide signs to ease the confusion and traffic congestion at this section of the 110 Freeway,” Ankrom said in a video he made and displayed at a gallery, which was how his act became known. A green light to Ankrom for his “Guerrilla Public Works.”

Around the World

Crime and Cars. In April the New York Times reported that an “unusual number of Ukrainians who threatened the established power structure have died or been injured in auto accidents,” counting six auto-related deaths and two injuries of opposition politicians since 1997. A red light to the over-the-road assassins of Ukraine.

In May Reuters reported that the residents of Junin, a small city in Argentina, faced with a crime wave and a police force too underfunded to maintain a fleet of cruisers, began to lend their personal vehicles. A green light to the sensible people of Junin.

The World’s Worst Driver? In November  2001 Reuters reported that Stuart MacNamara of Swansea, South Wales, was pulled over speeding and driving drunk while using a cell phone—and with only part of the use of his right arm, which had been previously severed in an accident. A red light to this most distracted of drivers.

The World’s Steepest Fine? In January the Associated Press reported that Anssa Vanjoki of Helsinki, Finland, was clocked on his motorcycle doing the equivalent of 46 mph in a 31 mph zone—and socked with a fine of $103,000. In Finland traffic fines are pegged to the offender’s income, and in 1999 Vanjoki, an executive at Nokia, had made $5.2 million on options sales. A red light to the Finnish authorities for a punishment worse than the crime.

The Wreck of the Butler-McCook.

Obviously, car travel is of crucial interest to Car & Travel. We strongly advocate that people drive to historical landmarks—but never, ever into them. On Aug. 5 Wilfredo Sanchez hopped a curb in Hartford—driving with a suspended license in an uninsured, unregistered vehicle—and parked his Kia Sportage in the parlor of the Butler-McCook House, built in 1782, the last remaining 18th-century home in the city. “The piano sailed through the back wall of the parlor into the library and took out a cupboard of Japanese antiques,” William Hosley, executive director of the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society (www.hartnet.org/ALS), described some of the wreckage to a New York Times reporter. A red light to Sanchez for recklessly destroying what others strive to preserve.