Traffic might move slowly in New York, but there is no such thing as a slow news year around here when it comes to cars, travel and traffic. This past year was no exception.

The big story, as far as we are concerned, was a battle the Club and others waged against the MTA for raising tolls based on a skewed and perhaps fraudulent presentation of its finances. There were good guys and bad guys in this story, as you will read here-valiant watchdogs and an arrogant toll authority.

Overtolled and overtaxed New York motorists also had a seesaw of a year if they were reading Mayor Bloomberg's lips on the subject of introducing tolls on East River bridges. Now he wants them, now he doesn't. Last time we checked, he doesn't. Since we don't award a Yellow Light, let's keep an eye on his lips next year, and be grateful that our cars aren't registered in Japan. This year, the Wall Street Journal reminded its readers that every inch of Japan's national highway system is tolled.

In other news, the battle over sport-utility vehicles-a Car & Travel cover story topic as early as June 1999-entered national consciousness with new intensity, due to a notorious ad campaign associating the vehicles (via some fuzzy logic) with terrorism. The SUV's not so fuzzy connection to high rollover rates was also a major factor in a spike in traffic fatalities-to its highest number (42,850 for 2002) in more than a decade.

More people lost their lives on the road, but fewer were injured-that statistic dropped from 3.03 million in 2001 to 2.92 million in 2002. And that is, in part, because seat belt use was up-to as high as 79 percent nationally, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Unfortunately, gas prices were up, too-to well above $2 per gallon at many area pumps in late February and then again in mid-August, in the wake of the power outage that darkened much of the Northeast.

Any time the cost and stress of driving in New York gets you down, remember that it could be worse. According to the 2003 Urban Mobility Report by the Texas Transportation Institute, commuters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Miami, Chicago, Phoenix and 20 other U.S. cities-including the likes of easygoing Portland, Ore.-waste more time in traffic than New Yorkers.

That may be hard to believe. But it certainly wasn't the only head-shaker in the headlines this year. You'll see. Read on.

Taken for a Ride
When the MTA held a public hearing prior to implementing toll and fare hikes last May, its most potent argument in blunting dissent was a $2.8 billion deficit. That massive shortfall, on closer scrutiny of MTA's accounting methods, became a surplus, triggering a lawsuit by the Club and others that ultimately was dismissed by the State Court of Appeals.

The MTA had the audacity to declare in court that it, in fact, was under no legal obligation to give any advance notice of a toll hike or hold a public hearing before implementing one. The court, in effect, agreed, saying that any remedy would have to come through new legislation.

Adding insult to injury, the MTA's Transit Authority arm in early 2003 was accused by a citizens' group of wasting "hundreds of millions" of dollars on construction projects awarded to politically connected contractors.

The MTA may not be under any present constraint to play it straight with the public, but it can't escape one consequence of its actions: a big Red Light from C&T.

Green at the End of the Tunnel
We'd be remiss in overlooking two heroes in this MTA toll affair, namely State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi and New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson. A pair of Green Lights to these intrepid public servants, whose probing of MTA's bookkeeping operations uncovered the hidden surplus.

Stunt Men and Terrorists
Two years after September 11th, air passengers still have good reason to feel vulnerable to terrorism. Last September, a 25-year-old former shipping clerk went undetected as he shipped himself from New York to Dallas in a wooden cargo crate. The stowaway made his 1,500-mile journey to his parents' home in a delivery truck, a cargo plane and a delivery van. Confidence in air safety was further eroded a month later when a 20-year-old college student was able to bring sets of boxcutters aboard two Southwest Airlines planes and hide them in the toilets. The potential weapons remained aboard the planes until the student e-mailed federal authorities informing them of his security-testing prank.

Red Lights to airport and airline personnel, the Department of Homeland Security and the two stunt men themselves in the hope that a more thorough and serious attitude on screening air passengers and cargo will prevail in 2004.

Fraud Busters
We all pay for no-fault car insurance fraud, and would probably like to give a punishment worse than a symbolic loser award to those who perpetrate it. Instead, let us give a Green Light to all of the observant insurance adjustors, diligent investigators from the National Insurance Crime Bureau and tough-minded Suffolk County

district attorneys whose collaboration culminated in the mid-August indictment of 85 members of a Brooklyn-based no-fault fraud ring that had milked the system for a potential $48 million covering more than 100 accidents.

A New Traveler's Virus
There once was a time when the only virus that disrupted travel was the kind that lodges in the cells of your fellow passenger on the plane or train, making you nervous that you'll catch the bug before you get to where you are going. In the hyperconnected era of the Internet, a new breed of virus has emerged, spread by hackers of computers rather than hackers of phlegm. This virus makes a mess, not of passenger health, but of travel infrastructure.

There were several waves of disruptive computer viruses this past year. In August a variant of the Blaster virus insinuated itself in unsuspecting computers all over the world, e-mailing itself to addresses stored on the infiltrated computers. Among other damage done, the virus delayed some Amtrak trains by up to seven hours and resulted in delayed and cancelled Air Canada flights, according to the Wall Street Journal. A Red Light to the hackers who spread this pointless plague.

Light Shed on Death
On Long Island, to live is to drive. As a relentless Newsday series highlighted this year, to drive on Long Island is, too often, to die.

"Death on the Roads," a feature series that ran May 4-16, covered this crucial subject from a wide variety of angles, including how state law may hamper punishment of drivers in fatal collisions, how the spread of SUVs makes it more dangerous to drive a car, and the unlikely identity of the deadliest road on the island: State Route 25 (Jericho Turnpike).

A Green Light to Anthony Marro and Robert Tiernan, the editors who envisioned and directed this important series, and to the staff writers (Robert Fresco, Tom Incantalupo, Jo Craven McGinty and John Valenti) and photographer (Daniel Goodrich) who fulfilled their assignments so capably.

Setting Limits
Studies indicate that there have been no adverse traffic safety consequences since the 65 mph speed limit was authorized for certain state roads in 1995 for a five-year trial period, and later extended by the Legislature to December 2005.

The State Legislature earns a Green Light for passage of legislation last year that not only makes the higher limits permanent but authorizes the state Department of Transportation to set 65 mph limits on additional highways, where appropriate. It's refreshing to see politicians deferring to the experts, the traffic engineers, in making the hard decisions affecting safety on our roads.

Out of Control
Red Lights flash brightly as the following cases reported last year give new meaning to the term "inappropriate behavior":

• A 20-year-old woman accepted a $90 ticket from a Hampton, Va., police officer without argument after being stopped for going 51 mph in a 35 mph zone. The officer drove off in his cruiser and turned onto another street-only to be rear-ended four times by the same woman in her red Mazda. The officer suffered minor neck and back pains; the woman was jailed on a felonious assault charge.
• A 40-year-old baby-sitter was arrested for drunken driving after passing out at a rest stop in Covington, La. The police arrived on the scene to find the car still running and five children inside. One of them, a 7-year-old girl, had summoned them by calling 911 on a cell phone.
• Southwest Airlines last year fired a pilot and co-pilot for "inappropriate conduct" after a flight attendant had reported that the pair had removed their clothes in the cockpit while flying a 737 Boeing aircraft. The pilots said that only one of them had removed his uniform after spilling coffee on it. While the Federal Aviation Administration says that flying naked is not specifically prohibited, the airline characterized the incident as a prank that had gone too far.

Street Smarts

Visit the Heritage-New Hampshire museum in Glen, N.H., and you can "test-drive" the Segway "Human Transporter" electric scooter in the state where it was born. But should the controversial one-person vehicle, capable of achieving a top speed of about 12 mph, ply public roads and sidewalks in New York State?

We think not. And so did the state Assembly, which blocked a bill that was poised to sail through the State Legislature in the session's final hours that would have allowed owners of Segway scooters to operate the device throughout the state with the exception of New York City.

As the Club explained in its opposition to the bill, there has not been enough research done on the injury potential to Segway riders and others, particularly pedestrians, if the scooter's use should become widespread. A Green Light to the Assembly for taking the slow and cautious approach.

Through a Glass Darkly
As we reported earlier this year, New York City was hitting motorists with fines ranging from $25 to $200 in enforcing a state law that prohibits covering up any part of

a license plate-even if it's just one of those thin dealer frames partly obscuring the words "Empire State."

The city pursued infractions regarding an image on a plate, while often ignoring (as C&T reader Michael Burke of Bayside noted in an e-mail this year) a much more serious visibility-related state requirement-one that prohibits the use of excessively tinted auto glass. Drivers who operate vehicles behind dark windshields, Burke noted, not only deny other motorists important eye contact, they also pose a risk to law enforcement officers, who may miss spotting a weapon behind tinted glass.

A Red Light to the City of New York for worrying about a trivial visibility issue while ignoring a potentially dangerous one.

Failing Grades for Region 8
Region 8 of the State DOT (an area that encompasses Columbia, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster and Westchester counties) gets a two-tier Red Light this year.

It failed to rectify (once again) confusing and dangerous pavement markings on the merge from the northbound Hutchinson River Parkway onto the westbound Cross County Parkway more than two years after Club traffic engineers first called it to their attention.

Region 8 also failed more or less across the board to properly sequence its traffic signals. Coordination is especially bad along Route 9 in Dutchess County between Poughkeepsie and I-84 (roughly in the Wappingers Falls area). Talk about red lights-just try driving that stretch!

Higher Standards in Region 11
The State DOT's Region 11 (which encompasses the five boroughs of New York City) receives a Green Light for completing a two-year project this past summer that brings the Long Island Expressway/ Clearview Expressway interchange in Queens up to modern interstate standards. Wider entrance ramps and longer acceleration lanes will mean a safer transition between the two major roads.

In Good Company
Three cheers (and Green Lights) for companies ready to go the extra mile in the interest of the public. They include:

Honda Motor Co., which announced in October that it will accelerate its program to install side-curtain airbags and anti-lock brakes on virtually all of its models sold in the U.S. by late 2006.

The FedEx Corp., which said it plans to replace its entire fleet of 30,000 medium-size delivery trucks with more fuel-efficient hybrid models powered by both diesel engines and electric motors.

The Hertz Corp., for its yearlong offer (continuing through Aug. 1, 2004) of free use of a child safety seat to AAA members renting any of its cars in support of AAA's campaign to raise public awareness of the importance of such protective devices.

Around the World
Make Safety, Not War, in China. In January, an estimated 10,000 students at China's Hefei Industrial University joined to protest-not campus or foreign policy-but a dangerous intersection which was not safely engineered for pedestrians.

Pizza-jacking in Canada. On New Year's Day, two teens in Edmonton, Alberta, tried to steal a pizza delivery man's car. When neither youth could operate the clutch, they settled for four pizzas. "It was a toss-up between the pizzas and the car, and they knew how to operate the pizzas," remarked a police spokesman.

Kiss and Drive in Norway. In October the St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, Norway, opened designated "Kiss and Drive" lanes near the entrance to its emergency room so staff could collect on a goodbye kiss from loved ones dropping them off without obstructing emergency vehicles.

Police Our Troops
This year, the annual awareness and enforcement effort of the Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign was directed at military personnel. Vehicle deaths involving service men and women were up 35 percent in 2003 compared to the previous year. General James Jones, a Marine Corps commandant, said, "We are losing more young men and women in traffic crashes than in combat and training combined."

More than 12,200 police agencies participated in the effort, which involved random seat belt checks and, in some states, cooperation between the police and military authorities, so that misdeeds on the road were also reported to the base commander.

A Green Light for this tough love on behalf of a mostly young sector of our population, who face enough danger away from our roads.