TID BIT

Dec.1, a rainy cold morning and the Mack and Mick are adamant that it is meal time (6AM) so priorities are what they are forced to be. I hopE by 10am I will have posted thoughts on tonight's Council budget hearing.

Meanwhile a tidbit. One of the magazines in order to boost circulation provides complimentary subscriptions to professional offices. One is "Automobile" and in its January 2010 issue has an an article "BEST (AND WORST) STATES FOR DRIVERS. and rates all 52 in several categories. The overall ranking the Garden State is #47 out of 50. Only Maryland and California are worse. Can we thank the Corzine or the Bush years for that.

For the benefit of the anonymous and local pols. I am an equal opportunity blamer.

There are various categories listed and on the cost of driving over a 5 year period New Jersey is a respectable #15.Even on driver "harassment " ; speed cameras, red light cameras seed limits, "NJ" is a respectable good #17. AS to cops on the highways Only Delaware has more than NJ. So why the overall low ranking?

That is in the last category "Aggravation". In this grouping New Jersey is # 52 in a list descending from the least aggravating state. Contributing to this is (a) number of cars per mile-97.7,(b) substandard roads- 49%. No other state comes close in either category. I an sure Plainfield is a major contributor to the road conditions.

One can draw inference from these last two statistics. Obviously road maintenance has been neglected along with other parts of our infra structure, and the number of cars is the results of (a) the lack of ancillary transportation routes, and over dependency on the auto for instate travel.