HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman)
Subject: Re: radar alert
Keywords: n
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Distribution: ba
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 06:39:15 GMT

In article <wtefz5t@Unify.Com> perry@Unify.Com (Perry Clarke) writes:
>kevinq@Ingres.COM (Kevin Quinn) wrote:
>>
>>It's my understanding (just a moment... there... nomex suit *on*) that the
>>CHP can *not* use radar on fed interstates, but only on local hiways and roads
>>where the local governments have provided the equipment.  (corrections 
>>welcomed).
>>
>
>A previous poster mentioned that CHP were using radar on 17 between San Jose
>and Santa Cruz and this was cited as evidence of CHP radar use on a
>freeway.  Apparently, bits of 17 are not actually freeway and CHP can use
>radar there but they cannot use radar on freeways anywhere in CA (so they
>use it where they can to reduce the overall traffic speed).
>
>What I want to know is what defines "freeway"?  And why are the roads on
>which speeders are most likely to be found exempt?  (Hey! I'm *not*
>complaining!)

In California, a "freeway" has absolutely NOTHING to do with the number of
lanes. A freeway is a state right of way that has controlled access. There
are two-lane rural highways in CA which are posted as freeways. 
You can spot these by noticing periodic signs which face the 
highway, along the right-of-way fence (and they ALWAYS have a right-of-way 
fence), intended to be read when moving perpendicular to the roadway.

They say "Freeway - Access Rights Restricted on this Section of Highway.
For Authorized Entrances and Exits, Call (xxx) xxx-xxxx". In a typical
highway (that is, "old fashioned" highway), you can legally exit or
enter from any property parcel abutting the road. A freeway has specific
places you can exit and enter.  

A four-lane highway can be traffic-signal-less and have interchanges
in some locations, but if the properties abutting it can legally
be entered and exited, it's not a freeway.




Newsgroups: ca.driving
From: grant@clarinet.com (Grant Robinson)
Subject: Re: safety?
Organization: ClariNet Communications Corp.
Distribution: ca
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 19:12:34 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.194643.14067@gecko.uucp> ed@Tekelec.gecko.uucp (Ed Campbell) writes:
>
>	MOTORCYCLE HELMET UPDATE
>
>	Some time ago, I posted some helmet related statistics in
>answer to an earlier query. I got a lot of flack for the figures
>13% to 16% increase in accidents per rider and 0.50% to 0.75%
>increase in serious and fatal injuries per accident. 
>	In case you didn't call the 800 number I posted later to
>get a list of sources, there was a sad verification published in
>the San Fernando Daily News last week. Motorcycle deaths are up
>in California by 8% this year. 

 - deaths per 1000 riders?
 - deaths per 1000 miles ridden?
 - total number of deaths?
 - fatalites per accident?

(The association with your previous paragraph is not clear.)

And what is the normal yearly fluctuation?  Any other reasons this might
be a bad year (heavy rains, early in the year, etc.)?

Your figures don't enlighten us much as they stand.
-- 
Grant Robinson -- ClariNet Communications Corp, Sunnyvale, CA (408)-296-0366
Newsgroups: ca.driving
Subject: Re: Barefoot = lawbreaker?
From: sgenchi@neptune.uucp (Agent 99)
Date: 12 Aug 92 17:14:27 PDT
Organization: CSLA

In article <53410020@hpcc01.corp.hp.com> zornow@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Claudia Zornow) writes:
>Is it legal to drive barefoot in California?  I had always
>thought it was all right, but a friend recently said he
>had heard it was illegal.
>
>Claudia

Rumor has it that it is not illegal anymore but it use to be.
sgenchi@calstatela.edu
Newsgroups: ca.driving
From: perry@Unify.Com (Perry Clarke)
Subject: Re: radar alert
Keywords: n
Organization: Unify Corporation
Distribution: ba
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 00:58:02 GMT

kevinq@Ingres.COM (Kevin Quinn) wrote:
>
>It's my understanding (just a moment... there... nomex suit *on*) that the
>CHP can *not* use radar on fed interstates, but only on local hiways and roads
>where the local governments have provided the equipment.  (corrections 
>welcomed).
>

A previous poster mentioned that CHP were using radar on 17 between San Jose
and Santa Cruz and this was cited as evidence of CHP radar use on a
freeway.  Apparently, bits of 17 are not actually freeway and CHP can use
radar there but they cannot use radar on freeways anywhere in CA (so they
use it where they can to reduce the overall traffic speed).

What I want to know is what defines "freeway"?  And why are the roads on
which speeders are most likely to be found exempt?  (Hey! I'm *not*
complaining!)

> [discussion of 580 deleted]

Recently, I was travelling west on 580 *up* the hill and I saw *four* CHP
patrol cars on the east bound shoulder each with a victim (all in a neat
line).  I'd guess that this was an airborne trap rather than radar.  I've
been a bit heavier with the brake going down the hill ever since.

--
Perry Clarke                   perry@unify.com                 (916) 928 6287
Unify Corporation, Sacramento, CA                   I speak only for Me, Inc.
From: keithg@cnmhnet.UUCP (keith garrard)
Newsgroups: ca.driving
Subject: Re: Buying a used car > sales tax and other state taxes
Date: 12 Aug 92 21:20:00 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Cal-Nevada Methodist Homes

I also agree that I want value for my tax dollars.  CA is a real rip-off
when it comes to taxes on vehicles.  
	I came here over a year ago from NC, and I drive a 1990 VW Fox.
They want me to pay between $1000-$1500 to register and receive a 
plate in CA.  Why?  I have to pay impact fees because my car is not a
CA car, in addition to the value of the car being used to calculate the
cost of the plate, and there is also one-time registration fees.  I said
forget it.  I still have a home in NC, and I will just continue to be a 
NC resident, officially.
	But I really do wonder where all the tax dollars go in CA?  In NC,
a license plate costs $20, period.  However, you do have to pay a 
property tax on your property, vehicles included.  But this runs around 
.67 per $100 value.  In other words, last year I paid $20 for a license
plate, and $47 in property taxes for the vehicle.  That was it.  Oh yeah, 
insurance coverage for the same car is only $220 for a year.  It doesn't take
long to realize that I save a fortune every year by maintaining my legal   
residence in NC.  
	What about buying a new car?  Again, in CA they charge you a sales
tax for a car the same as for everything else, with no maximum.  In NC, the
sales tax on vehicles in 2%, with a maximum tax of $250.  If one is planning
on buying a car anytime soon, and they can get around the CA residency deal,
they can save a fortune on taxes alone by buying out of state.  
	So where do our taxes go in CA?  The roads, while quite extensive, 
are in bad need of repair and resurfacing.  Everytime I cross the Bay Bridge
or Golden Gate Bridge, it costs me $1.00 or $3.00.  Where does that money
go?  With CA being such a car-happy state, why aren't there more parking
spaces in the cities?  
	Sorry about this being so long.  My thoughts for the day.  --Keith
From: wallich@iti.org (Kenneth Wallich)
Newsgroups: ca.driving
Subject: Re: Buying a used car -> sales tax
Date: 21 Aug 92 20:56:52 GMT

chu@freebie.jpl.nasa.gov (Eugene Chu) writes:

>I do have to admit though, that the California freeway system is far
>more advanced than that of a lot of other states.  (anyone driven in
>Massachusettes recently?)  This is where your vehicle and fuel taxes
>are supposed to be going.

Well, I don't know how you define 'advanced', but I just drove from
the bay area up into Washington state and back again recently.  You
could tell when you got out of California because the suspension
stopped bottoming out, and you realized that your tires really weren't
sorely out of balance.  Even the areas of the freeway under
construction in Oregon and Washington were in better shape than most
of 101.

Now "most" states may not be as well maintained as Oregon or
Washington, or Texas, or New Jersey or Pennsilvania (ok, so I can't
actually spell the names of all the states, but I can find most of
them on a map :-) which I've also driven recently.

Don't get me wrong here, Cal Trans does remarkable emergency work.
Having lived in the Santa Cruz mountains and watching how quickly
those guys made the road driveable again was refreshing.  The problem
is, most areas were never touched after the initial emergency work,
and now the roads up there are falling apart again.  I know when the
*do* get around to paving it, it will end up uneven and in need of
repair more often.  Hwy 17 has been repaved for less than a year,
and it's full of gouges and irregularities already.
--
Ken Wallich
wallich@ncd.com  
ken@wallich.com
Newsgroups: ca.driving
From: dman@netcom.com (Dallman Ross)
Subject: Re: Buying a used car -> sales tax
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 01:57:20 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

In article <5477@transfer.stratus.com> leadfoot@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com 
(Mark Curtis) writes:

: I don't understand why they think people should have to pay sales
: tax on a used auto.  The original owner was already raped by them
: when it was first purchased.

Listen, I should be the last one to be defending taxes.  But many of
you seem to be missing a basic point about how all of this works.
Let's go back to an original moment when we have a new nation full
of people ready to work and exchange their goods and services for
money.  The government issues the legal-tender.  Let's say, for 
purposes of illustration, that there are 1,000,000 workers, and
the government prints up $1,200,000,000 dollars.  That's $1,200 per
worker.  The government "seeds" the factories and employers with this
money, with government-backed capital-investment loans.  So Ms. Worker
goes to work for Auto Plant.  After one month, Auto Plant pays Ms.
Worker $100.

Now, Ms. Worker pays $15 to the IRS/Franchise Tax Board.  So does
everybody else.  Now the government has $15,000,000 dollars each
month, or $180,000,000/year.  The goverment pays that money out
in wages to civil servants and to support the infrastructure.  The
money is used to pay workers and service-providers, or to re-stock
capital suppliers and factories.  And, guess what, folks?  Each
time the cycle happens, more income/captal-gains taxes are
paid.  Except for new money issued to replace worn bills or money
that permanently leaves the system for storage-deposit on foreign
shores, *there is no new money*!  (Not counting for inflation, of
course.)  Anyway, as time goes on and the cycles continue to
run through, taxes repeatedly accrue on what is really just the
same recycled money.  Also, as Ms. Worker takes home her $85 take-home-
pay and pays her rent, buys a (used) car, etc., she will have the
honor of paying various further taxes for her deeds.

That's how capitalism works, folks, like it or not.  I don't see
anything earth-shattering about paying new sales taxes on a used
car I buy, just as I don't see anything earth-shattering about
paying income tax on money my employer got from hundreds of workers
like me who bought his merchandise with money he'd paid me before.

No, I'm not happy with the current federal structure or with the
idea of taxes in general.  But that's the reality, and I don't
understand what's so novel about the circumstance you are
complaining over.

--
 __D_a l_l m a_n  _ R o_s s _ |dman@netcom.com  /or/  |"You sound like a man|
 l  \\ l\\   /l  /\\  l\\   l |dross@well.sf.ca.us    |with a rubber nose." |
 l   >)l \\ /ll /  \\ l \\  l |vox/fax: 1.510.645.1883| -- One-Lung Bill    |
 l  // l  \X ll/--- \\l  \\ l |350 Perkins St., #108  |     Remmer (deceased)
_l//______________________\\l_|Oakland,_CA__94610-3422|_____________________|_
Newsgroups: ca.driving
From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman)
Subject: Re: Buying a used car -> sales tax
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 06:41:36 GMT

In article <5535@transfer.stratus.com> leadfoot@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Mark Curtis) writes:
>In article <1992Aug11.210938.13926@aero.org>, helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) writes:
>|> In article <5477@transfer.stratus.com> leadfoot@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Mark Curtis) writes:
>|> >I don't understand why they think people should have to pay sales
>|> >tax on a used auto.  The original owner was already raped by them
>|> >when it was first purchased.
>|> 
>|> Sales tax is a tax on sales - ANY sales. Every time something
>|> is sold in the state, the tax applies, unless it's in one of the
>|> specially exempt categories, like food.
>
>
>They get plate tax every year and gas tax on every gallon of fuel you buy.
>Stop planting flowers and start fixing/building the roads.  This state
>spends big money on stuff most states just let grow wild.  They should
>fix the roads first and leave the gardening to nature.

Most states get enough rainfall that something will grow wild. I was
born here and believe me, south of Stockton, nothing grows wild except in
the late winter and early spring. By June, most stuff has cured out and
is nothing but a fire hazard. If we depended on natural rainfall for
freeway landscaping, it'd be pretty barren. (Nerium oleander grows
pretty well with no watering but it's fairly scruffy by mid-summer.
Two dry years in a row, and it's all over.


Newsgroups: ca.driving
From: calving@netcom.com (The Lindsay-Geyer Corp)
Subject: Re: RADAR ALERT on 101!
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 09:38:03 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 

In article <40110003@hpmwga.sr.hp.com> jefftb@hpmwtd.sr.hp.com (Jeff Brown) writes:
>Seems to me that the CHP has a nice little cherry patch going. I have heard
>of the CHP using radar now on the Golden GAte bridge. But this is "US" 101
>and technically not an interstate. Which by the way doesn't allow it to have
>65MPH status in the more unpopulated areas. Also I have seen the moving
>radar in there cars on the bridge and on the connector (tunnel) to 19th Ave.
> 
> Jeff (watching my rearview) Brown
Zere iss no schtatde pfundingk forr zee radar. Butt, iff zee lokalzik payzz fvorr der radar, zie Gestapo ist authzorizzen (by State law) to uzzen sie radarr.  Any Kwestionn? (Consult the CVC).

Calvin G.
From: cmt@key.COM (Chris Thomson)
Newsgroups: ca.driving
Subject: Re: do insurance companies know about out-of-*country* tickets?
Date: 19 Aug 92 00:58:03 GMT
Reply-To: cmt@key.key.COM (Chris Thomson)
Organization: Key Computer Laboratories, Fremont

In article <2=9m0cb.wisner@netcom.com> wisner@netcom.com (Bill Wisner) writes:
>The Subject pretty much says it: can insurance companies discover tickets
>issued in other countries -- specifically, Canada?

Yes they can.  My wife got a ticket just before we moved from Alberta
to California, and it showed up on my insurance here about 6 months
later.  [I didn't tell the insurance company here about it because my
wife "forgot" to tell me about it...]
-- 
Chris Thomson, Amdahl Corporation            cmt@key.amdahl.com
46525 Landing Parkway, Fremont CA 94538      Tel 510-623-2312  Fax 510-770-0493
From: slagle@lmsc.lockheed.com (Mark Slagle)
Newsgroups: ca.driving
Subject: Re: Buying a used car -> sales tax
Date: 13 Aug 92 03:49:08 GMT
	<SLAGLE.92Aug6132516@sgi417.msd.lmsc.lockheed.com>
	<920810.2022146541@resnais.postmodern.com> <5477@transfer.stratus.com>
Reply-To: slagle@lmsc.lockheed.com
Followup-To: ca.driving
Organization: You wouldn't ask this if you'd seen my desk.
In-reply-to: leadfoot@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com's message of 11 Aug 92 01:09:40 GMT

In article <5477@transfer.stratus.com>, leadfoot@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Mark Curtis) writes:

> I don't understand why they think people should have to pay sales
> tax on a used auto.  The original owner was already raped by them
> when it was first purchased.

Were you under the impression that the tax laws were
supposed to make sense?  Are you laboring under the
misapprehension that "double taxation" is against the
rules?  (Think corporate income tax, for example)

We don' need no steenkeeng reasons!
--
----
Mark E. Slagle                                 PO Box 61059
slagle@lmsc.lockheed.com                       Sunnyvale, CA   94088
408-756-0895                                   USA
Newsgroups: ca.driving
From: eoates@us.oracle.com
Subject: Re: Buying a used car -> sales tax
Organization: Oracle Corporation, USA
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 19:08:00 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
              at Oracle Corporation.  The opinions expressed are those
              of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.

In article <1992Aug13.062503.29735@aero.org>, helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) writes:
> In article <1992Aug12.050915.2569@verity.com> Anders Wallgren <anders@verity.com> writes:
>>In article <1992Aug11.210938.13926@aero.org> Robert S. Helfman,
>>helfman@aero.org writes:
>>>The tax rates (even taken as Federal, state, and local, together)
>>are
>>>still miniscule compared to almost any other industrial Western
>>democracy.
>>
>>Excuse me, but after ~30% in federal income tax, ~20% in SS tax
>>(counting employer contribution) and ~11% in CA state tax, plus
>>various and sundry sales, disability, use and sin taxes, this is
>>becoming less and less true.  Even Sweden is beginning to reform
>>their evil ways...
> 
> The 33% (it's not 30%) top marginal tax rate only applies to the last dollars
> of your income, not the whole thing. There are three brackets,
> and each rate is applied for a portion of the income. Nobody, not even the
> richest person, pays the full marginal rate on their WHOLE income.
> The same applies for the 11% state top marginal rate.

It seems bizarre to be discussing income taxes in a driving newsgroup, but I
can't resist adding some info here.

It was possible for a while for the richest tax payers to pay 31% of their
entire income  in taxes to the Feds - that's what that 33% "bubble" was for. 
Everyone seemed to think it was a penalty paid by people earning from about90K
to 150K or so, and that the rich guys got off paying less taxes.  NOT SO.  The
rich guys paid the bubble, too, on the income in the bubble range, until their
total tax burden was 31% of their total income.  Then the rate went back down
to 31% on the rest.  A source of great bitching and moaning about Reagan
"unfairness and preference for the rich" which was simply untrue and propogated
by people with no ability for mathematical calculation and reasoning - like
journalists and congress people.  But the bubble is gone as of the 1990 budget
agreement.

Ed Oates (my opinions, not Oracle's)
From: neilw@informix.com (Neil Williams)
Newsgroups: ca.driving
Subject: Post office and DMV
Date: 13 Aug 92 20:18:15 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.


Well, I found the hard way recently that the post office does
not forward mail from the DMV.  I noticed that my registration
was a bit late in arriving, so I went down to the DMV to
renew in person.  Turns out I was a few days late, and got
hit with that 40% late fee - $93!!!

Talking later with co-workers, it seems that the post office
never forwards DMV mail. 

I was also wondering - what if I had just registered from 
scratch instead of "renewing" my registration.  Could I have
avoided the late fee?  Just an idle thought.

The moral - keep the DMV informed of your new address....

--Neil

-- 
Neil Williams: neilw@informix.com

Seen on my last trip on United: "If you are seated in an exit row 
and can not (sic) read this card... please notify a crew member."
From: jefftb@hpmwtd.sr.hp.com (Jeff Brown)
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 19:30:21 GMT
Subject: Re: Passing lane signs
Organization: HP Santa Rosa Site (NMD MTA MWTD)
Newsgroups: ca.driving

 Why is it tha t the traffic speeds up while in the two lanes then the first
 car to pass does so at 1mph faster and when the lane ends we all end up in
 the same parade but a differnt leader.
 Maybe the sign should read " slower traffic stay right and maintain(or slow)
 your current speed" . Or pull to right and let the parade pass by.
 Just venting steam    
 Jeff Brown
								      
			
Xref: sparky seattle.general:2621 pnw.general:1828
From: crystal@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Crystal)
Newsgroups: seattle.general,pnw.general
Subject: Re: Seattle Online / polari
Date: 18 Aug 92 14:26:14 GMT
Article-I.D.: glia.crystal.714147974
Distribution: pnw
Organization: University of Washington

In <1992Aug17.201425.15591@fnx.uucp> jp@fnx.uucp (Jack Pospyhala) writes:

>In <1992Aug17.025007.16709@eskimo.celestial.com> nanook@eskimo.celestial.com (Robert Dinse) writes:

>>     If you'd like to try Eskimo North call (XXX) XXX-XXXX and login as "new"
>>and we'll set up an account.  Eskimo North has been online for more than ten
>>years now.  The reliable alternative...

>Wow, I'm impressed.  I've never seen another system, or even heard of
>another system, that has been online for ten years.  How do you do it?
>Do you have some method of replacing disk drives and stuff while the
>system is powered up and online?  What kind of operating system still
>works after 10 years?  Or did you figure out a way to do an in-memory
>upgrade of the operating system while staying online?  I heard you
>changed over to a new platform not too long ago, that must have been a
>real trick!  I mean, did you just sort of quickly swap in a new CPU
>chassis?  Like, jerk the cables from the drives and modems and shove
>them into the new CPU before any of those pesky electrons fell on the
>floor?  C'mon, share, I'd really like to increase the reliability of this
>system.  It just can't seem to stay online for more than a few months at
>a time...

>-- 
>Jack Pospyhala                                    uunet!pilchuck!fnx!jp
>There is no gravity, the world sucks...

I don't think that's what he meant, Jack...
*geez*  Computer geeks take everything as literally as their computers do!
*laugh*
 
 I think he means that E-N isn't a fly-by-night, take the money and run
 sort of service.  And I *think* it was a MiniBin system running on a 
 Tandy way back in the beginning.  I have no idea what it is now (and
 really don't care anyway) :>
  
  Cute post, though.. :>
  Thanks for the laugh...

Crystal
  ;>
Newsgroups: seattle.general
From: davidb@zeus.ce.washington.edu (David W. Barts)
Subject: Re: What happened to all the Yellow Jackets?
Keywords: Insects, Wasps, Bees, Sting, Ouch
Organization: University of Washington
Distribution: seattle
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 21:34:51 GMT

In article <cummings.714160508@milton>, cummings@milton.u.washington.edu (Michael Cummings) writes:
> 	Last Summer, there was a plague of Yellow Jackets in the Seattle
> area.  News programs carried stern warnings to stay clear of them, with
> expert testimony concerning the grave dangers of wasp stings to those who
> are allergic to them.  Bee sting first aid kits were, I was told, a hot
> item.  So what's happened to them now?
> 
> 	I have hardly seen any this year, and I'm one of those who gets
> excited and screams and dances when they're around.  I've seen nothing
> about bees or wasps on the news or in the papers.  What's going on?  Am I
> unique in having a wasp-free summer?

Well, they sure have been buzzing around my house this summer!  Every
time I'm outside painting or gardening I notice them.  Generally, I
watch what I'm doing and try to avoid annoying or provoking them.
Haven't been stung yet this summer.

--
David Barts  N5JRN                      UW Civil Engineering, FX-10
davidb@ce.washington.edu                Seattle, WA  98195
Newsgroups: seattle.general