The system works
Who says politics has to be boring? From exposed underwear to “upskirt” photos – a practice where voyeurs point cameras up women’s clothing to capture some rather private images – you’d think some of the bills at this year’s General Assembly session were inspired by a peep show – or a giggly middle school sex-ed class.
Among the most notable proposals was a bill that would have fined people $50 for wearing low-hanging pants in public that would expose one’s underwear “in a lewd or indecent manner.” The bill, mercifully, was killed by a Senate panel after worldwide media picked up the story and briefly made Virginia “the target of global ridicule,” according to a front-page article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
A Senate panel also killed a measure that would have basically reintroduced school prayer by amending a portion of Virginia’s bill of rights which was originally based on Jefferson’s statutes of religious freedom.
The Senate is doing a good job of overriding the legislative excesses of the House. Now if they could just agree on a budget.
Phantom tollbooth
Ask the Times-Dispatch for a solution to Virginia’s transportation problems, and they will tell you tolls are the answer. “Unlike taxes,” they insisted in Tuesday’s editorial page, “tolls give drivers a clear sense of the actual cost of heading down the highway.”
The Times-Dispatch, however, shunned congestion pricing – a practice of raising tolls during peak hours – and supported HOT lanes (high-occupancy/toll lanes), which allow drivers to skirt carpooling requirements for restricted lanes by paying a small fee.
As long as tolls are going to be used to make drivers more aware of the cost of commuting, they should also be used to lower costs by providing people with a greater financial incentive to reduce traffic and choose to carpool or use mass transit instead – or better still, live closer to work to begin with.