How Can This Be Illegal?

So, a guy gets a speeding ticket.

He pays the ticket, on time, with a valid check.

But he adds a bunch of obscenities and editorializing on the ticket form.  Not threats, just pissed off.

So...he is arrested?  Really?  This is clearly political speech, in the sense of a petition for a redress of grievances.  No question it is political, so fails the Miller Test on what can be prosecuted.

And no one even saw it, until the state decided to make an issue of things that would have just remained private.

Can we have "no-drive" cars?

Could we have cars with no drivers?

Maybe not, unless we had an America with no lawyers.

Who to sue?

"Anyone who gets into the convoy business will have a lot of legal work ahead of them "

Rule of Law...NOT

Driving in Russia.  The premise is that "everybody" has a video camera to record accidents that are not their fault, because other people lie and police are corrupt.  I'm not so sure.  The point is that these are people who have video cameras on their dashboards, so whatever that implies about selection, is implied.  Caveat inspectoris!


with a nod to Mark Fey... 

Are Roads Public Goods?

Economists tend to think of the role of government as (1) enforcing contracts, adjudicating disputes as a neutral referee, and providing an infrastructure in which the transactions costs of exchange are low, and (2) acting to correct "market failure" through regulation or direct provision in the case of public goods.

A "public good," as Angus has pointed out a number of times, has two features (or, from a pure market perspective, "bugs").  These are (a) non-rivalness in consumption and (b) costly exclusion.

"Non-rivalness" means that the good is not subject to consumption or being "used up."  If I turn on my radio, that does not reduce the amount of radio waves available for you to listen to.  If the radio signal is broadcast, everyone in the range of the broadcast can listen.  It does not cost more to broadcast radio signals in a city compared to the country, because consumption is non-rival.

"Costly exclusion" means that much of, all of, or even more than the price that could be charged for the good or service would be dissipated by trying to collect the charges.  Radio seems like a "costly exclusion" good, though it is possible to encrypt the signal so that only someone with decoder can listen.  (By and large, commercial radio "solves" this problem by inverting the market:  listeners are the "product" and advertisers pay for access to eardrums.  One ad crowds out another, and it is easy to exclude would-be advertisers who don't pay.  The other model, of quasi-public goods and no commercials, may be solved with voluntary provision, as I argued in this NPR "Planet Money" segment.  Tote bags and coffee mugs for all you good contributors!)

Now:  the question, since we have the setup.... Are roads public goods?  The answer is quite difficult, and there is no one-size-fits-all correct response.  (More after the jump...)

The World's Toughest Bridge

This bridge is right next to campus here at Duke.  I have seen these incidents twice, with my own eyes.  And heard them with my ears.  Very, very, very loud, and violent.  Cool.


With thanks to WEH

Wake Up! It's a Truck!

Would I have done this?  Yes.
Would the repurcussions have been worse.  Yes.
Would it have been worth it?  YES.
A

Amusingly, this was done I-40, just west of the RDU airport.  So it would work pretty well, only a few miles away.  And the LMM always sleeps in the car...

He hit himself with his rhythm stick!

You just can't go wrong with this story.

A 36-year-old Jacksonville man is accused of performing a sex on himself while driving south on Interstate 95 near Ormond Beach.  Ronald Ayers was charged with indecent exposure on Wednesday.

He denied performing the sex act, saying another driver who reported him to authorities misunderstood what he was doing while driving – using drum sticks to hit his steering wheel.

Some salient facts:  (1) It was apparently consensual.  (2)  The guy's defense, his DEFENSE, mind you, was that he had both hands off the steering wheel and was pounding the steering wheel with his drumsticks.  (3) The woman who claims she had a "clear view" was clearly not looking at the road, herself.

Reminds me of the old joke.  Woman calls police, says man is exposing himself in window of other apartment.  Police come in, she points, "See!  SEE!  It's disGUSTING."

Policeman looks.  "Ma'am, I don't see anything."

Woman.  "Well, of course not.  You have to stand on the chair, and use these binoculars."

Nod to Angry Alex, and with thanks to Mr. Drury for the title, which of course I adapted.