More traffic also meant more traffic laws. Traffic management, road maintenance, expanded police departments, and new construction ate up large segments of municipal budgets, and cities looked for new sources of revenue to cope with the presence of motor vehicles.  Americans were eager to take to the road and understood that money was needed for better roads and traffic management.  In the pioneering days of loco-motion, the driver’s license was more of a membership card than a permission slip.  Having a driver’s license was prestigious.  In fact, in the early 1900s, Chicago issued automobile license buttons that owners wore on their driving apparel. Licenses were also looked upon as a fair way to tax the people who were fortunate enough to be able to afford an automobile without unfairly taxing the people who could not.

Today the driver’s license is a state’s primary weapon of mass duress.  States revoke the driver’s license for so many reasons nowadays that it is hard to keep track of them all.  Most every drug possession charge that results from traffic stops by police will result in a licensed suspension.  If you forget to pay for your gas and inadvertently drive off, your will lose your right to drive.  If arrested for a crime that the government calls violent, you could lose your license, but overwhelmingly, most people lose their right to drive as a result what the government has labeled dangerous driving.  If a driver has accumulated too many speeding tickets within a random timeframe, they will lose their right to drive.  If arrested for per se impaired driving, the driver, regardless of whether the driver’s driving abilities were actually impaired or not, they will lose their license. 

Current traffic laws relating to driving behaviors such as speed, passing, use of turn signals, and impairment, along with laws in respect to the vehicle’s equipment such as tire wear, properly functioning lights, seatbelts, and emissions, all are enacted under the banner of making the public roadways safer.  The presumption is that if ticketed, and punished for violating a traffic law, drivers will be less inclined to repeat the behavior that could lead to an accident.  That would be great if it were true, but it simply is not. 

Furthermore, the concept of an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure needs to be abolished from the psyche of the lawmaking process.  We punish too many Americans for what could have happened.  For example, if a driver undisputedly causes a traffic accident, in which there are fatalities, a jury of the driver’s peers should stand in judgment and render appropriate punishment, but under no circumstances should the right to drive be part of a sentence.  However, if the same driver is in violation of a traffic safety law prior to an accident, the only acceptable punishment is a fine.  Revoked licenses produce revoked drivers, and revoked drivers are most often uninsured drivers. 

There is an inherent risk associated with human beings strapping themselves into steel, aluminum, and plastic cages and hurling themselves at 70mph down the interstate.  Making safer drivers, safer roads, and safer vehicles should remain a top priority for consumers, drivers, businesses, and the government.  However, if the government must punish the people by making a right into a privilege thus calling it a crime to do otherwise, then both the government and the people have failed to accomplish much of anything at all.