December 25, 2025 • 39 mins
Continued conversation with Automotive Expert Craig Fitzgerald, discussing what’s ahead for the auto industry in 2026! Listen as they discuss auto dealer consolidation, EV sales, tax credits, new driving laws, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news
radio Help It.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Is Nightside with Dan Ray and Bradley and for Dan
Tonight with Greig Fitzgerald talking about automotive things, particularly now
rules in the New England states that are going to
change on Jen one laws, rules.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Correct off the road. We've covered two. Can we recap
sure the two? The two were Massachusetts which changes to
rental insurance, So rental car insurance is now you are
as the renter are the primary insurance carrier, not the
rental car company in New Hampshire is now not having
(00:42):
an inspection anymore, and they're raising their fees for almost
everything else.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Speaking of insurance, do you get your insurance directly through
a company or do you have it's like an independent
insurance Brooke.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
We have an agent and he's great and he is
in Norfolk and it's just like him and his wife.
They've run this a little insurance agency. They're very helpful
to us.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I love having I also have an agent, Yeah, and
I love it. Yeah, they're great. A question do I
need this? Do I need that? If there's anything wrong,
you call them and yeah, I would have to go
on whatever.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
When when the big thing for us was having two
kids that now are coming into our policy and asking
them all the questions about what do we need to do?
And you know, my daughter she got an a fender bender, Like,
how's this going to impact us?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
They were super helpful. They helped us.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Get a surcharge waved, which I don't think you know,
a progressive or somebody would Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, we don't want to diss any companies, but we do.
I don't mind talking about the advantages of an independent insurance. Yeah. Sure,
So your daughter got an a fender bender. What were
the circumstances? I just can't help.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
But so she she was you know, she was a
new driver. She had only been driving for three or
four months.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Uh, pulled out a Lows right around this time of year.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
It was wet, kind of snowy, and she pulled out,
and she spun the car around and bumped into somebody.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
No no damage, no.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Significant damage to her car and and minor damage to
the other car.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
And you know it was a it was our first offense,
I guess. And uh, the our agent, uh you know,
advised us how to get the the surcharge waved.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And and that's a huge question. How do you do that?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I can't even remember, to be honest with you, But
we wrote a letter, We explained the situation, and they
waved it. Now, if you went back six times and said,
you know, this is my sixth accident, can I wave
the they would probably didn't make six copies of that
letter again.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, get it again? Yeah right, I didn't know you
could do that.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, so it was They were really helpful. So yes,
I'm I'm a big fan of agents. People have to
take driver training in Massachusetts, yes, correct, And that's actually
that's that's one of the things that's coming up here
in Connecticut is that the was it Connecticut? Yes, it
was Connecticut Learners. Permit holders now have to take an
eight hour course before getting their driver's license in Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
That is the truth.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
In Massachusetts as well.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And in Massachusetts I had to do what when both
of my kids were getting their licenses, I had to
drive with them for forty hours? Yeah, so you know,
only eight now, Uh, this is an eight hour course
and I don't know if there is the driver yeah
right right.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I can't remember how long my driver ed course was.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
My driver's ed course felt like it was twenty five minutes,
and it was I remember driving my driving instructor to
buy cigarettes all the time. That was the length the
extent of our I had to drive a long way.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
But I have a question. Do they still show those
scared straight kind of movies without death on the highway accident?
Do they still show them? I don't think so.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
My son didn't say that he was shown that. I
was shown it. For sure.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Our society, which got a grade of eighty two percent
just a little while ago, wouldn't tolerate that seeing those
hurtful things on. Now that I think.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
About it, I think I was shown the school bus
safety one where the school bus rolls over and all
the kids are ejected from the school bus.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And they need to figure out why would they show
you that because you're not driving a school.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
But no, but it was like, here's what happens if
something happens on the bus. Here's how you get out
of the bus, so you know how to use the
emergency door in the back and the windows and stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
We had to see the whole horrific series of images.
And you talked about this could be a topic someday.
Where did your driving instructor take you and make you drive?
Did he make you go return something mine? I took
my driver training and it's where I grew up, small
town New Hampshire, just call it Rochester. And he made
(05:18):
me drive to Rockingham Park. That's a hike to that's
who sail once you do?
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Because he wanted to bet on the interesting and I
had to wait in the park and waited in the
parking lot.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
That's like being driven to the Golden Bananas. I was
kind of like his chauffeur, like you were. But that's
that's a long way. Yeah it is, it is, but
you know, you got a place a bets and he
said stay in the car.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I'm going. It's like your driving instructor was Uncle Buck
kind of and back then, I don't even know if
anyone would have cared. So what now? It would right
now would be a federal thing, right right? Or state thing? Yeah,
looks like we have Jane and Shrewsbury. Hi Jane, Hi.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Bradley, Hi Craig, Hi Jane.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
How are you good?
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Merry Christmas?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Same to you.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
I have a couple of questions, and you've been touching
on so many interesting topics that I could comment on too,
But first a car question, a specific car question, and
then it's a couple of general questions if you don't
mind absolutely, what do you think of a Toyota Salara
convertible as a future collectible? They ended I think in
(06:32):
two thousand and seven or eight or something like that.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Correct, My guess is it will never be collectible. That
doesn't mean it's not a fun car to own.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So they were.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
The Solara, if people don't know, was basically a two
door camera and they you could either buy it in
a two door coup or a convertible version, and they
were very nice cars. They weren't performance oriented. They were
just almost like a Chrysler Sea Bring was the same idea,
and they were really nice cars. They were one of
(07:05):
the first cars I remember that had a really tight
and quiet convertible top. They were triple lined and you
could drive that all winter without issue. A collectible, I
would say probably not. I mean, there may be some
interest in those at some point in the future. But
trying to figure out when I was at Hemmings, I
(07:26):
used to get asked that a lot like one of
the cars that I can buy today, that that are
gonna be worth something in the future, and it seemed
like every year that the number of those got fewer
and fewer. And the one that sticks out to me right.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Now is the what was that car? It was the
Hyundai Uh what was it?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I can't remember, And it wasn't the Elantra. It was
a two door sport coop. It was a really cool
little car. They only produced it for a few years,
very performance oriented that I could see have and some
potential in the future. But yeah, I would have to
say with the with the Salar, probably not.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Probably not.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Okay. And as far as if you're trying to sell
a car yourself or buy a car like privately secondhand,
which websites are the best ones to look at for
pricing ideas like the old standbys, Kelly Bluebook, those kind
of things. But as far as selling like Craigslist, Facebook
(08:31):
Marketplace or listing on you know one of the secondhand.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, question, yeah, excellently. Question.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I use Facebook Marketplace all the time. I buy and
sell on there, and everybody's complaint is, well, you know,
I put a put an ad up there and I get,
you know, fifteen hundred people asking me is this still available?
You just have to weed through those and find the
people who are actually serious about buying the car. I mean,
it's a free service. That's kind of the what I
(08:59):
pay for being able to use that, and it works
pretty well, and I've sold a bunch of there.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
It works.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
It works well. As far as pricing information, I tend
to look at car Gurus, which is a really good site.
They're in they're local, they're based in Boston here, they're
a Boston based company. I know a bunch of people
who work over there, and I use that for pricing
information because they'll they they you know, a dealer or
(09:32):
a private party can list a car there and you
look at it and whatever their price is, they'll have
an indicator next to it that says, this is a
good deal, this is overpriced, this is kind of right
in the ballpark. That's a it's a pretty handy thing
I always look at. I tend to look at like,
whatever the asking prices is, I don't know, that's a
(09:55):
number that somebody pulled out of their hat. It's transaction
price that I'm mostly in trusted in, and that I know.
Here's what I use eBay for is I'll go back
and look at what what like if I'm looking for
a two thousand and three Camaro, I'm gonna look at
the two thousand and three. You know, you need to
go through the advanced search part of it, but you
(10:15):
can find vehicles that sold and find out what they
sold for. That to me is a transaction price on
classic vehicles. I look at Haggarty. I I have Haggarty
Insurance through my vintage cars. I look at them for
transaction price. They know what the transaction prices of everything
(10:37):
because they ask so they they're the number one vintage
car insuran in the country. They know what everybody paid
for everything, They know what they insure them for, and
their values are generally on the money.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Does that help yeah? Does that help change?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Definitely. It's I've looked at cargos before in cars dot com. Also,
before you go to break Bradley, can I just tell
you a couple of the thoughts that you triggered that
you've been bringing up. You guys can talk about it
after you. But I think that we should have transponders
in our license plates. They could catch violations that way,
(11:18):
and you know, there is technology to make things a
lot safer. I think we shouldn't be able to weave
in and out because those are the people that seem
to cause a lot of accidents. And as far as hitchhiking,
I actually knew someone who picked up a bank robber
and got kidnapped, so that wasn't a good story. And
(11:39):
I think we should retest all drivers in the written
test more often, like when you're my age. I took
the written test a long long time ago and I
don't remember all the rules, so I'm not that old
where they say, oh, we can't retest older drivers because
they're the voters. But I think we should just retest
everybody every twenty.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Years and like almost like jury to get to get renewed.
Maybe every time that happens, yeah, or or you know,
they pick your name out of a hat and you're
going to get tested this year.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
But I maintain it's kind of theater. No, people don't care. No,
it's the truth.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
And I mean if if people were monitored more and
knew that they were going to get written up, they'd
be better drivers.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
They absolutely would. Now you talked about transponders Jane in
the registration plates. Are you talking about automated enforcement?
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Well, that could it could be used for enforcement. It
could also be that everyone has it for going through tolls,
So there's not this idea that you now can go
through a toll and they have to send you a bill,
which seems really silly.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You don't have the easy past.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Have cameras on stop lights and that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, yeah, that's you know, that's obviously. You know, a
lot of states are doing that. I forget there are
a lot of states doing automated enforcement. There's a lot
because I'd love to.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Know how that works out. I'm I'm a law a bier, right,
and so I'm raised when I see people just blowing
through lights. So they they what they did find was,
you know, you they can definitely dial up the sensitivity
on a stop light camera, and you know, it can
give you a little bit of grace time going through
(13:17):
a yellow light, or it can really come after people
that you know, like okay, the second that that turned red,
you were going through it. So you know, it depends
on the sensitivity of the technology and how how strict
they want to be. We're going to talk a little
bit more about this. I'm going to say goodbye to
you now, Jane, Thank you, and since we're talking about
(13:39):
laws and stuff, or new laws, automotive laws from the
next year, I think it might be a good time
to start asking you would you be in favor of
automated enforcement. I have a whole plan. It will save
your town money. Now, maybe you don't really care about
public safety. A lot of people don't, but maybe you
care about your tech bill. Maybe you don't want cameras
(14:04):
deciding that you have broken the law. I'm curious about it. Well,
it's it's a good question because you know, you know what.
It's twenty pasted. Let's talk about it, right and anybody else,
I'd love to know what you think about automated enforcement.
The number six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty
on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
It's going to be with you my friends on night
Side with Dan Ray, Bradley, Jay and for Dan Tonight,
Craig Fitzgerald's our guests, and he isn't he knows all
about cars and car rules and traffic, and he's the
automotive man and he's with us sharing new rules for
the new year when it comes to the new England States.
But we did run into a question about automated enforcement.
(14:51):
I don't think there's anybody in New England going that way, right,
But I'm just curious, folks, how many of you would
like to see automated traffic enforcement? And that's in whatever
state you're in. There are pros and cons. I don't know.
Maybe we should debate, Craig. I want to give you
(15:12):
my hybrid plan that I think would be great. Okay,
A lot of people don't want a machine deciding, you know,
whether or not they broke the law. They feel that
the machine would be unforgiving. Right, I just went I
just was a little late on that red line. I
(15:33):
just was in the parking whatever. My theory is this
cameras everywhere every a recorded a problem crime, traffic crime,
it's not a crime in fraction, right, would get sent
(15:54):
to a lot of traffic enforcement headquarters where a human being, trained,
human being trained to be even and fair would look
at them all. So you'd get a human factor and
would say, oh, that was just you know that guy
tried to stop, he slid through it was it was icy, right,
(16:17):
or you know that that's you know somebody could that
could really only take the serious offenders, the obvious scofflaws
and give them tickets. So and also you would you
would only need one officer to do this per I
don't know how many hundred thousand residents.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Well, I guess, I guess. The question is do you
want the police department to be in charge of traffic enforcement?
So there's a rule, there's a there's there's a pro
and a con there. It's expensive is that there's a
guy out there who sees you do something, he's going
(16:58):
to pick you up right then and there, he's gonna
write you a summons and then you're gonna go on
your way. The con is it's exceedingly dangerous for that
police officer, right, he doesn't know he's who he's walking
up to. He's there all by himself, he doesn't have
a partner in the car with him anymore, and they
(17:19):
get hit constantly. Yeah, so you know, we've tried to
alleviate that by you know, you've got to move over
and all of that kind of stuff, but it still happens.
So it's dangerous, yeah, and it is expensive. Yeah, it's
time consuming. And do you want the police doing this?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
No, you don't. You don't need to have a police
officer do it, because the camera could do it.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
But then the flip side of this is and the
horse has left the barn. On the surveillance state, but
do you want that much surveillance you do?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
It's I already have you already have that level of availance?
You do? There was a recent I think one of
the more recent shootings they detailed how many cameras called
the Brown University thing. That's crazy, a series of overlapping cameras.
And in addition, there are more cameras than that. And
down in the m BT A look at the Wellington
(18:14):
stop there, I wonder, I wonder, is there really anybody
looking at paying somebody to look at that empty platform?
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Or that happens they go and check the tape vehicle
inspections here in the state. There is your hybrid system
is how it works, right, So when you go and
get your your your vehicle inspected here, there is a
human that is watching that inspection happen. So if the
guy who runs the inspection station is just waving, is
(18:45):
just throwing stickers on everything that comes through, he's gonna
get caught because there's an actual human that's watching those things.
They're not watching every one, but people get picked up
for it pretty regularly. They'll lose their inspection license because
use they give out too many stickers to people who
shouldn't get a sticker. So that part of it, that
(19:06):
hybrid system already exists and it's can you do it
at scale on every highway and road in Massachusetts?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So let me continue with my argument. Got it safer
for police officers, cheaper, better use of trained police officer time? Yes?
And it makes money, right, it doesn't cost much to
stick up a camera. It's it's sayers money there is.
(19:37):
You'll be able to hire more police officers to do
to do police officer anything.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
There is something to uniform uh enforcement. So how many
times do you see somebody do somebody something that is
the dumbest thing you've ever seen behind the wheel and
they just drive on and know they never pay a
penalty for that, they never get caught doing it, and
(20:02):
there's never a cop around when you need, right, So
this is the cop around when you need one who
is going to pick up those kind of infractions.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I do like that part of it. It makes money
for the town people.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Well, here's the well, the people who are trying to
who are likely to cause an accident that might hurt
you or your family.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Here's a win win.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
The not win is that the towns do not have
the technology spread through, Like they'll have cameras all over
the highways, but when you're down to you know, Elm
Street in you know bill Ricca, like do they have
Like they're not going to put cameras on every street.
(20:51):
The town is not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Well, you can certainly get to the busiest, most dangerous intersection.
You can do that. I can do that with the
internet and people don't really know. You could stick a
few on little streets like wall on that street. So
if you wouldn't really know, you wouldn't know. You'd have
to assume that every little street had one, right, Okay.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
So the ground thing, the brown thing was interesting because
a lot of those cameras were ring cameras. They were
they were private cameras, so like you can't rely on
those for this kind of thing. You would have to
be pretty widespread with your coverage. That's a that's a
big leap.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah, I mean, after a month, you could buy plenty
more cameras. And there are so many cameras everywhere, and
it's so cheap. They're so small, and the recording is
so cheap. It's a surveillance state already. Why not make
it put it to good use. I still haven't heard
from anybody, either in the audience or from you a
(21:56):
real downside.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
No, I don't think there's a huge downside, But nobody
wants it.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Why is that? I think people don't. Let I think
I know why nobody wants to say because people they
want to be outlaws.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
We're a nation of outlaws, right, and that's it, right,
And you know, I want to be able to break
the lawn if I want. I want to be able
to blow that light if I want. That's what it is.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Having experienced driving in Germany, and this was a long
time ago, this is two thousand and four or five,
they had all of this. They had traffic cameras everywhere,
like you could not get away with anything in Germany.
You know, the highways are much faster than we are here,
but they are very stringent about the rules on those highways,
(22:45):
so you know they've figured it out. However, Germany is
a very rule following society, and we're not. You would
have to re educate this entire country, I think to
get them to under stand why they'd want to do this.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
You might think that talking about this being a law
breaking country would be off the topic of them cars,
but it's completely on topic.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
It's where most people break the most loss. It's where
the most dangerous thing you do is drive on right.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
And you know, you know from just being out there,
nobody is doing sixty five miles an hour anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Nobody nobody cares you you are.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
They're closer to eighty now, so and and you know,
cars have gotten safer, cars have gotten better.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
They're better at eighty miles an hour than they ever
were before. That's not real.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
So so do you just bump the speed limit up
to seventy five and then monitor everybody but knowing if
you go over seventy five you are going to get it?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Oh yeah, if you had automated pump it up. Yeah,
you send it to the speed you really want people
to get right? Right? Okay, I think we need a break,
right brother? All right, it's WBZ.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
We continue on night Side with Dan Ray and Bradley
and for Dan tonight, I want to remind you folks
who might be a little shy to call that if
once you get over that initial call, you'll have a
whole new world, especially if you're a person that's alone,
you're up late at night, you'd like a community, right well,
as soon as you get over that initial fear and
call one time, see how much fun it is. Then
(24:32):
you have a voice in thirty eight states on WBZ,
and you'll have a community of and you know a
lot of the people that call in, you know them,
but they don't know you. So it's really worth it.
And I only bring this up because when I speak
to people in person, so many say I listen, but
I don't dare to call, And I think, and so
(24:55):
I'm trying to massage of folks that would really like
to call into just going for it one time. What's
the worst that can happen? We're friendly people, Yes, I hesitated,
I try to be all right. We're talking about automotive
laws that are going to be kicking in in New
(25:18):
England on January one. I do have Michael and Attleborough him. Michael,
you're on w b Z.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Thanks for Hey, how's your calling? Hope you had hope
you had a great holiday. It's been a couple of
things that have been irking me for the last, oh god,
twenty years. Really, remember, if you're from Massachusetts, remember the
right hand lane was the slow lane on a highway. Yes, sir, okay, okay,
(25:47):
they dropped that. But in addition, well I don't know
if they officially dropped it, But in addition to that,
they did this terrible, terrible thing where they the breakdown
lane to be opened during the you know, the busy times. Correct,
(26:07):
there are a number of people from out of state
that got killed because they pulled onto what they thought
was a breakdown lane because they had a flat of something.
So where is the the twain meet, as they say.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Even if even from Massachusetts, somehow as you can, and
somehow as you can if you get the hours wrong,
what if you just know? So it's crazy. I mean,
we should never have done that, Like the idea it was.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
I don't know, and I don't know how the federal government,
the Department of Transportation will approved it. And I don't
know if it's got something to do with that section
of highway is both a state highway and a federal highway.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I don't know. How that works.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
But what about the people have died. I mean you
never heard. No, you're about it.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
You're right, You're right, I mean it is. We should
never have allowed that to happen. So the enforcement of
the slow lane, the travel lane, and the passing lane
has not changed federally. Those you know, the the right
most lane is the is really only supposed to be
(27:21):
used if you're exiting the highway. Right, you're coming up
to an exit, Okay, I'm going to pull into that lane.
The middle lane is the travel lane, which is where
you're supposed to be, and the furthest leftmost lane is
passing passing only. That is that part of driving in
(27:41):
this country is where every other country beats us because
they know that that's the passing lane. Where they live here,
it's just another travel lane. People will, you know, set
their cruise control it's seventy two miles an hour and
just stay there, regardless of what the speed of the
traffic around them is.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
And on the right hand lane, left, the left.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
One, the left length the left right, and people will.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Stay in there whether they're passing anybody or not, and
that that causes problems for everybody Like you, you should
be in the You know, it's fine to pass somebody
and get back in, but you shouldn't be in that
lane unless you're passing.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
You know what. No one knows the rules and the
one and even if they did, they wouldn't care about it.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
It's it's just a message, right, And that gets to
the call and we spoke to before you know her.
You mentioned and Jane from Shrewsbury mentioned that we should
be tested on a regular basis and regardless of what
your age is like you know what my thing was
like jury duty? You know, well, well it's my turn.
(28:52):
I'm I'm gonna need to be tested this time around
on my general knowledge of how the highway works. It's
it's something we don't do. You get license when you're
sixteen and nobody ever asked you about it. Again, meanwhile,
things have changed a lot, right.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Yes, I mean I can tell you, excuse me, I
can tell you I was going up twenty four about
fifteen years ago, and this is when I had a
bad habit of always being laid everywhere. Now I just
accept that I'm going to be late.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
So the later late late. Now you're very late.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Behind the van. I was behind a van in the
right hand lane, and I was kind of pull in
to the breakdown and fly And I am glad I didn't.
Wasn't there a vehicle stopped going ten miles an hour
whatever they were doing when you know, when we finally
(29:49):
kept going and I looked, I looked over. If I
had pulled over, I would have been dead. They would
have been dead. But I just don't understand. I'm glad
that someone that agrees with me. I don't understand why
the safe police so whatever decided that wasn't drawn to
task on that.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah, I really don't know, to be honestly, Thank you
very much, Michael, appreciate that call.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, that was a good one.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
And it's it's always confused me why that section of
one slippery slope.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
The next thing, after breakdown lanes will be during the hours,
during rush hours, you can drive on the sidewalk right
right well, and that you you might laugh a little bit,
but they might make a rule that after you know,
between certain hours delivery motorcycles will be able to go
on the sidewalk, right folks. I never talk about bikes
(30:39):
and bike lanes, but I feel like I'm ready to
talk about that at any time, because so many towns
have spent so much money on bike lanes, reducing travel lands.
And I get it. A town that has fewer cars,
that's a good thing. I want to be like Amsterdam.
That's tremendous. How for what's happened? Is this all that money,
(31:02):
all your text money, they got spent on your bike lanes.
Those bike lanes are now delivery vehicle lanes. They are
lanes used. They've been usurped by motor scooters delivering stuff
growubhub and all that, and it's really dangerous for bicycle
(31:23):
artis and I don't, well, so this thing that people
are fine with that because well, it's good for business.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
This is again the difference between US and other countries
in that that wouldn't happen anywhere else, like there would
be enforcement, there would be a cultural like, hey, this
is not something that we do, so we don't do it,
and we tend not to think that way. We tend
to think like, well, if nobody's stopping me, then I'm
(31:52):
just gonna do.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Fact, everybody does it. And of course if I'm going
to talk about this, I just have to briefly address
the strain, philm that is the absolute agreement tomorrow. Motus
scooters don't seem to have to obey traffic laws. Why
is that they don't even start to obey many cases,
(32:14):
don't slow down for the red light. And everybody seems
okay with this. Nobody's doing anything about it, and nobody
will again until somebody that's some lawmaker knows gets hurt.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
And this gets to your point, like with cameras and stuff,
like they need to have a plate, they need to
be insured, they need to be insured, and they need
to be that needs to be enforced.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
And if you're working for a company, I think you
should be working for the company. So the companies on
the hook insurance wise as well. And so they can't
just say, well, independent contractor not not on me, because
it's possible that in some cases those companies are pushing
them to do.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
A little Yes, isn't doing that right because they know
that they're going to be on the hook for it?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Right all right?
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Six one, seven, two, five, four thirty is our number.
More in a moment on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio, we only.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Have a little while left with Craig Fitzgerald to get
to all these new laws that are going to kick
in regarding automotive issues on January one.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
So we have we have three states that we need
to cover, and we can cover two pretty quickly Rhode Island.
Rhode Island, some fees are going to go up, especially
in regards to EV's, which it's a little I don't know,
it's a little weird, uh removal of or they know, no.
(33:50):
So what they're going to do is registration fees are
based by weight in in Rhode Island. Uh so it's
a you know where EV's can be heavier. You may
pay some additional registration fee there. But also you're going
to get a fifteen dollars a year dot sub search
charge and a three dollars fifty cent fee if you
(34:13):
register an EV and you still have to pay an
xise tax there, which I think is I think staks.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Why should evs be exempt from x sciz tax.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
They're not exempt, you're going to pay They shouldn't be.
You should pay an excesse tax like everything else. What
they don't pay is gas tax because they're not buying gas,
but they're buying electricity, which is taxed like crazy.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Right, So now it's just an unfair fee as far
as I'm concerned.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
And then Vermont used car dealers in Vermont have to
retain records for all of their vehicle's last safety inspections,
which isn't I don't know what the issue is that
would have made that come up. But they also must
include a statement about the buyer right to get their
vehicle inspected by an independent mechanic of their choice before
(35:05):
the sale is completed. Can you say that in another
way so that I understand it? So, if you're buying
a car from a used car dealer, you must include
a statement somewhere that says you have the right to
go get this vehicle checked out by a mechanic, buy
an independent mechanic. They have to They have to tell
(35:26):
that to people, because I think most people don't realize
that they can ask to do that.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Is there any time after the sale? No, it's before
before the sale, right right? But they have to allow
you to take it somewhere. Correct, So the dealer I
might say, well, we don't like you to take it. Yeah,
they have to include a statement now that says you
you are within your rights to do that, okay, So,
which I think is you know, pretty good for the consumer.
So this is the big one. This is main.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Main.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
A few years ago, we talked about Kke Last trucks.
A few minutes ago.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
K Glass trucks are small pickup trucks built for the
Japanese market. They're just a little tiny cab and a
little tiny bed. They're minuscule vehicles, but they're very useful.
Most of them are four wheel drive, most of them
are right hand drive, and a ton of them got
imported here in the United States. Maine a few years
(36:23):
ago said you cannot you cannot register these because of
safety concerns. We don't believe that they have they haven't
passed us DOT certification, even though they are more than
twenty five years old. We will not register them in
the state of Maine. And it never made sense to
me why they did that until this makes sense. Now
(36:45):
you can register an ATV and then use it on
public roads in the state of Maine. So my feeling was,
my thought was that the ATV dealers in the state,
which are pretty there's a lot of them, had been
come powerful enough to lobby the state to a make
(37:05):
sure that you are able to register these things to
drive on the road. Atvatvs and restrict K class trucks,
which are essentially they do the same job, but they're
a lot cheaper than an ATV is.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Now, so people are gonna have to use ATVs to
do certain chores like farm chores, correct, correct, that need
to go on the road. So this is I see,
so people are using them.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
People are using them recreationally, right, basically they're yeah, they
may be using them for work too, for but these
are the side by side style ATVs that essentially are
like a car that have no safety regulations whatsoever, aside
from having a roll cage on them.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
They have seat belts, but you know you're not You've
not even required to use them.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
So the safety argument from the state about K T
was irrelevant, Like it's it doesn't mean anything, because if
you're willing to register these things for the road, the
K trucks are just as safe. They have good seatbelts,
they have a safety cage, they're just as safe as
an ATV would be.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
So the safety thing was a red herring.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Interesting and I think this I think it was leading
up to this where ATV dealers they knew they could.
You know, these things are expensive now they're twenty five
grand and up and they wanted to be able to
sell these.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Craig, I only have thirty seconds, so I want to
all right, man, I want to say bye, thank you
so much, but I also want you to tell everybody
who you said. I look like I'm not wearing a
hat or anything tonight.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
I looked at Bradley and he looked like Stanley Tucci.
I know I made your day.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
I love that Stanley Tucci has this really cool show
called Just Discovering Italy or something like that. Yeah, I
really appreciate that. You know. I do save my head everyone.
I do shave my head. I always wear a hat
because it's my head gets so cool. You yourself are
wearing a Santa hat. If any, it's not shame from
(39:11):
being bald. It's when you have a shaved head, if
your head gets cool. All right, thank you so very much, Craig.
Of course you're happy to be here. You're the man,
and I'm here for another couple of hours. Gonna be
open lines. I had such a good time last night
with you all the open lines. Let's do it again.
What do you say? Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
(39:32):
thirty
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news
radio Help It.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Is Nightside with Dan Ray and Bradley and for Dan
Tonight with Greig Fitzgerald talking about automotive things, particularly now
rules in the New England states that are going to
change on Jen one laws, rules.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Correct off the road. We've covered two. Can we recap
sure the two? The two were Massachusetts which changes to
rental insurance, So rental car insurance is now you are
as the renter are the primary insurance carrier, not the
rental car company in New Hampshire is now not having
(00:42):
an inspection anymore, and they're raising their fees for almost
everything else.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Speaking of insurance, do you get your insurance directly through
a company or do you have it's like an independent
insurance Brooke.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
We have an agent and he's great and he is
in Norfolk and it's just like him and his wife.
They've run this a little insurance agency. They're very helpful
to us.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I love having I also have an agent, Yeah, and
I love it. Yeah, they're great. A question do I
need this? Do I need that? If there's anything wrong,
you call them and yeah, I would have to go
on whatever.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
When when the big thing for us was having two
kids that now are coming into our policy and asking
them all the questions about what do we need to do?
And you know, my daughter she got an a fender bender, Like,
how's this going to impact us?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
They were super helpful. They helped us.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Get a surcharge waved, which I don't think you know,
a progressive or somebody would Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, we don't want to diss any companies, but we do.
I don't mind talking about the advantages of an independent insurance. Yeah. Sure,
So your daughter got an a fender bender. What were
the circumstances? I just can't help.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
But so she she was you know, she was a
new driver. She had only been driving for three or
four months.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Uh, pulled out a Lows right around this time of year.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
It was wet, kind of snowy, and she pulled out,
and she spun the car around and bumped into somebody.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
No no damage, no.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Significant damage to her car and and minor damage to
the other car.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
And you know it was a it was our first offense,
I guess. And uh, the our agent, uh you know,
advised us how to get the the surcharge waved.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And and that's a huge question. How do you do that?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I can't even remember, to be honest with you, But
we wrote a letter, We explained the situation, and they
waved it. Now, if you went back six times and said,
you know, this is my sixth accident, can I wave
the they would probably didn't make six copies of that
letter again.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, get it again? Yeah right, I didn't know you
could do that.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, so it was They were really helpful. So yes,
I'm I'm a big fan of agents. People have to
take driver training in Massachusetts, yes, correct, And that's actually
that's that's one of the things that's coming up here
in Connecticut is that the was it Connecticut? Yes, it
was Connecticut Learners. Permit holders now have to take an
eight hour course before getting their driver's license in Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
That is the truth.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
In Massachusetts as well.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And in Massachusetts I had to do what when both
of my kids were getting their licenses, I had to
drive with them for forty hours? Yeah, so you know,
only eight now, Uh, this is an eight hour course
and I don't know if there is the driver yeah
right right.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I can't remember how long my driver ed course was.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
My driver's ed course felt like it was twenty five minutes,
and it was I remember driving my driving instructor to
buy cigarettes all the time. That was the length the
extent of our I had to drive a long way.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
But I have a question. Do they still show those
scared straight kind of movies without death on the highway accident?
Do they still show them? I don't think so.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
My son didn't say that he was shown that. I
was shown it. For sure.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Our society, which got a grade of eighty two percent
just a little while ago, wouldn't tolerate that seeing those
hurtful things on. Now that I think.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
About it, I think I was shown the school bus
safety one where the school bus rolls over and all
the kids are ejected from the school bus.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And they need to figure out why would they show
you that because you're not driving a school.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
But no, but it was like, here's what happens if
something happens on the bus. Here's how you get out
of the bus, so you know how to use the
emergency door in the back and the windows and stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
We had to see the whole horrific series of images.
And you talked about this could be a topic someday.
Where did your driving instructor take you and make you drive?
Did he make you go return something mine? I took
my driver training and it's where I grew up, small
town New Hampshire, just call it Rochester. And he made
(05:18):
me drive to Rockingham Park. That's a hike to that's
who sail once you do?
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Because he wanted to bet on the interesting and I
had to wait in the park and waited in the
parking lot.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
That's like being driven to the Golden Bananas. I was
kind of like his chauffeur, like you were. But that's
that's a long way. Yeah it is, it is, but
you know, you got a place a bets and he
said stay in the car.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I'm going. It's like your driving instructor was Uncle Buck
kind of and back then, I don't even know if
anyone would have cared. So what now? It would right
now would be a federal thing, right right? Or state thing? Yeah,
looks like we have Jane and Shrewsbury. Hi Jane, Hi.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Bradley, Hi Craig, Hi Jane.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
How are you good?
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Merry Christmas?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Same to you.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
I have a couple of questions, and you've been touching
on so many interesting topics that I could comment on too,
But first a car question, a specific car question, and
then it's a couple of general questions if you don't
mind absolutely, what do you think of a Toyota Salara
convertible as a future collectible? They ended I think in
(06:32):
two thousand and seven or eight or something like that.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Correct, My guess is it will never be collectible. That
doesn't mean it's not a fun car to own.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So they were.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
The Solara, if people don't know, was basically a two
door camera and they you could either buy it in
a two door coup or a convertible version, and they
were very nice cars. They weren't performance oriented. They were
just almost like a Chrysler Sea Bring was the same idea,
and they were really nice cars. They were one of
(07:05):
the first cars I remember that had a really tight
and quiet convertible top. They were triple lined and you
could drive that all winter without issue. A collectible, I
would say probably not. I mean, there may be some
interest in those at some point in the future. But
trying to figure out when I was at Hemmings, I
(07:26):
used to get asked that a lot like one of
the cars that I can buy today, that that are
gonna be worth something in the future, and it seemed
like every year that the number of those got fewer
and fewer. And the one that sticks out to me right.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Now is the what was that car? It was the
Hyundai Uh what was it?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I can't remember, And it wasn't the Elantra. It was
a two door sport coop. It was a really cool
little car. They only produced it for a few years,
very performance oriented that I could see have and some
potential in the future. But yeah, I would have to
say with the with the Salar, probably not.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Probably not.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Okay. And as far as if you're trying to sell
a car yourself or buy a car like privately secondhand,
which websites are the best ones to look at for
pricing ideas like the old standbys, Kelly Bluebook, those kind
of things. But as far as selling like Craigslist, Facebook
(08:31):
Marketplace or listing on you know one of the secondhand.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, question, yeah, excellently. Question.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I use Facebook Marketplace all the time. I buy and
sell on there, and everybody's complaint is, well, you know,
I put a put an ad up there and I get,
you know, fifteen hundred people asking me is this still available?
You just have to weed through those and find the
people who are actually serious about buying the car. I mean,
it's a free service. That's kind of the what I
(08:59):
pay for being able to use that, and it works
pretty well, and I've sold a bunch of there.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
It works.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
It works well. As far as pricing information, I tend
to look at car Gurus, which is a really good site.
They're in they're local, they're based in Boston here, they're
a Boston based company. I know a bunch of people
who work over there, and I use that for pricing
information because they'll they they you know, a dealer or
(09:32):
a private party can list a car there and you
look at it and whatever their price is, they'll have
an indicator next to it that says, this is a
good deal, this is overpriced, this is kind of right
in the ballpark. That's a it's a pretty handy thing
I always look at. I tend to look at like,
whatever the asking prices is, I don't know, that's a
(09:55):
number that somebody pulled out of their hat. It's transaction
price that I'm mostly in trusted in, and that I know.
Here's what I use eBay for is I'll go back
and look at what what like if I'm looking for
a two thousand and three Camaro, I'm gonna look at
the two thousand and three. You know, you need to
go through the advanced search part of it, but you
(10:15):
can find vehicles that sold and find out what they
sold for. That to me is a transaction price on
classic vehicles. I look at Haggarty. I I have Haggarty
Insurance through my vintage cars. I look at them for
transaction price. They know what the transaction prices of everything
(10:37):
because they ask so they they're the number one vintage
car insuran in the country. They know what everybody paid
for everything, They know what they insure them for, and
their values are generally on the money.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Does that help yeah? Does that help change?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Definitely. It's I've looked at cargos before in cars dot com. Also,
before you go to break Bradley, can I just tell
you a couple of the thoughts that you triggered that
you've been bringing up. You guys can talk about it
after you. But I think that we should have transponders
in our license plates. They could catch violations that way,
(11:18):
and you know, there is technology to make things a
lot safer. I think we shouldn't be able to weave
in and out because those are the people that seem
to cause a lot of accidents. And as far as hitchhiking,
I actually knew someone who picked up a bank robber
and got kidnapped, so that wasn't a good story. And
(11:39):
I think we should retest all drivers in the written
test more often, like when you're my age. I took
the written test a long long time ago and I
don't remember all the rules, so I'm not that old
where they say, oh, we can't retest older drivers because
they're the voters. But I think we should just retest
everybody every twenty.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Years and like almost like jury to get to get renewed.
Maybe every time that happens, yeah, or or you know,
they pick your name out of a hat and you're
going to get tested this year.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
But I maintain it's kind of theater. No, people don't care. No,
it's the truth.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
And I mean if if people were monitored more and
knew that they were going to get written up, they'd
be better drivers.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
They absolutely would. Now you talked about transponders Jane in
the registration plates. Are you talking about automated enforcement?
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Well, that could it could be used for enforcement. It
could also be that everyone has it for going through tolls,
So there's not this idea that you now can go
through a toll and they have to send you a bill,
which seems really silly.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You don't have the easy past.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Have cameras on stop lights and that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, yeah, that's you know, that's obviously. You know, a
lot of states are doing that. I forget there are
a lot of states doing automated enforcement. There's a lot
because I'd love to.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Know how that works out. I'm I'm a law a bier, right,
and so I'm raised when I see people just blowing
through lights. So they they what they did find was,
you know, you they can definitely dial up the sensitivity
on a stop light camera, and you know, it can
give you a little bit of grace time going through
(13:17):
a yellow light, or it can really come after people
that you know, like okay, the second that that turned red,
you were going through it. So you know, it depends
on the sensitivity of the technology and how how strict
they want to be. We're going to talk a little
bit more about this. I'm going to say goodbye to
you now, Jane, Thank you, and since we're talking about
(13:39):
laws and stuff, or new laws, automotive laws from the
next year, I think it might be a good time
to start asking you would you be in favor of
automated enforcement. I have a whole plan. It will save
your town money. Now, maybe you don't really care about
public safety. A lot of people don't, but maybe you
care about your tech bill. Maybe you don't want cameras
(14:04):
deciding that you have broken the law. I'm curious about it. Well,
it's it's a good question because you know, you know what.
It's twenty pasted. Let's talk about it, right and anybody else,
I'd love to know what you think about automated enforcement.
The number six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty
on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
It's going to be with you my friends on night
Side with Dan Ray, Bradley, Jay and for Dan Tonight,
Craig Fitzgerald's our guests, and he isn't he knows all
about cars and car rules and traffic, and he's the
automotive man and he's with us sharing new rules for
the new year when it comes to the new England States.
But we did run into a question about automated enforcement.
(14:51):
I don't think there's anybody in New England going that way, right,
But I'm just curious, folks, how many of you would
like to see automated traffic enforcement? And that's in whatever
state you're in. There are pros and cons. I don't know.
Maybe we should debate, Craig. I want to give you
(15:12):
my hybrid plan that I think would be great. Okay,
A lot of people don't want a machine deciding, you know,
whether or not they broke the law. They feel that
the machine would be unforgiving. Right, I just went I
just was a little late on that red line. I
(15:33):
just was in the parking whatever. My theory is this
cameras everywhere every a recorded a problem crime, traffic crime,
it's not a crime in fraction, right, would get sent
(15:54):
to a lot of traffic enforcement headquarters where a human being, trained,
human being trained to be even and fair would look
at them all. So you'd get a human factor and
would say, oh, that was just you know that guy
tried to stop, he slid through it was it was icy, right,
(16:17):
or you know that that's you know somebody could that
could really only take the serious offenders, the obvious scofflaws
and give them tickets. So and also you would you
would only need one officer to do this per I
don't know how many hundred thousand residents.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Well, I guess, I guess. The question is do you
want the police department to be in charge of traffic enforcement?
So there's a rule, there's a there's there's a pro
and a con there. It's expensive is that there's a
guy out there who sees you do something, he's going
(16:58):
to pick you up right then and there, he's gonna
write you a summons and then you're gonna go on
your way. The con is it's exceedingly dangerous for that
police officer, right, he doesn't know he's who he's walking
up to. He's there all by himself, he doesn't have
a partner in the car with him anymore, and they
(17:19):
get hit constantly. Yeah, so you know, we've tried to
alleviate that by you know, you've got to move over
and all of that kind of stuff, but it still happens.
So it's dangerous, yeah, and it is expensive. Yeah, it's
time consuming. And do you want the police doing this?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
No, you don't. You don't need to have a police
officer do it, because the camera could do it.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
But then the flip side of this is and the
horse has left the barn. On the surveillance state, but
do you want that much surveillance you do?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
It's I already have you already have that level of availance?
You do? There was a recent I think one of
the more recent shootings they detailed how many cameras called
the Brown University thing. That's crazy, a series of overlapping cameras.
And in addition, there are more cameras than that. And
down in the m BT A look at the Wellington
(18:14):
stop there, I wonder, I wonder, is there really anybody
looking at paying somebody to look at that empty platform?
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Or that happens they go and check the tape vehicle
inspections here in the state. There is your hybrid system
is how it works, right, So when you go and
get your your your vehicle inspected here, there is a
human that is watching that inspection happen. So if the
guy who runs the inspection station is just waving, is
(18:45):
just throwing stickers on everything that comes through, he's gonna
get caught because there's an actual human that's watching those things.
They're not watching every one, but people get picked up
for it pretty regularly. They'll lose their inspection license because
use they give out too many stickers to people who
shouldn't get a sticker. So that part of it, that
(19:06):
hybrid system already exists and it's can you do it
at scale on every highway and road in Massachusetts?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So let me continue with my argument. Got it safer
for police officers, cheaper, better use of trained police officer time? Yes?
And it makes money, right, it doesn't cost much to
stick up a camera. It's it's sayers money there is.
(19:37):
You'll be able to hire more police officers to do
to do police officer anything.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
There is something to uniform uh enforcement. So how many
times do you see somebody do somebody something that is
the dumbest thing you've ever seen behind the wheel and
they just drive on and know they never pay a
penalty for that, they never get caught doing it, and
(20:02):
there's never a cop around when you need, right, So
this is the cop around when you need one who
is going to pick up those kind of infractions.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I do like that part of it. It makes money
for the town people.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Well, here's the well, the people who are trying to
who are likely to cause an accident that might hurt
you or your family.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Here's a win win.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
The not win is that the towns do not have
the technology spread through, Like they'll have cameras all over
the highways, but when you're down to you know, Elm
Street in you know bill Ricca, like do they have
Like they're not going to put cameras on every street.
(20:51):
The town is not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Well, you can certainly get to the busiest, most dangerous intersection.
You can do that. I can do that with the
internet and people don't really know. You could stick a
few on little streets like wall on that street. So
if you wouldn't really know, you wouldn't know. You'd have
to assume that every little street had one, right, Okay.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
So the ground thing, the brown thing was interesting because
a lot of those cameras were ring cameras. They were
they were private cameras, so like you can't rely on
those for this kind of thing. You would have to
be pretty widespread with your coverage. That's a that's a
big leap.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah, I mean, after a month, you could buy plenty
more cameras. And there are so many cameras everywhere, and
it's so cheap. They're so small, and the recording is
so cheap. It's a surveillance state already. Why not make
it put it to good use. I still haven't heard
from anybody, either in the audience or from you a
(21:56):
real downside.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
No, I don't think there's a huge downside, But nobody
wants it.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Why is that? I think people don't. Let I think
I know why nobody wants to say because people they
want to be outlaws.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
We're a nation of outlaws, right, and that's it, right,
And you know, I want to be able to break
the lawn if I want. I want to be able
to blow that light if I want. That's what it is.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Having experienced driving in Germany, and this was a long
time ago, this is two thousand and four or five,
they had all of this. They had traffic cameras everywhere,
like you could not get away with anything in Germany.
You know, the highways are much faster than we are here,
but they are very stringent about the rules on those highways,
(22:45):
so you know they've figured it out. However, Germany is
a very rule following society, and we're not. You would
have to re educate this entire country, I think to
get them to under stand why they'd want to do this.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
You might think that talking about this being a law
breaking country would be off the topic of them cars,
but it's completely on topic.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
It's where most people break the most loss. It's where
the most dangerous thing you do is drive on right.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
And you know, you know from just being out there,
nobody is doing sixty five miles an hour anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Nobody nobody cares you you are.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
They're closer to eighty now, so and and you know,
cars have gotten safer, cars have gotten better.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
They're better at eighty miles an hour than they ever
were before. That's not real.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
So so do you just bump the speed limit up
to seventy five and then monitor everybody but knowing if
you go over seventy five you are going to get it?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Oh yeah, if you had automated pump it up. Yeah,
you send it to the speed you really want people
to get right? Right? Okay, I think we need a break,
right brother? All right, it's WBZ.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
We continue on night Side with Dan Ray and Bradley
and for Dan tonight, I want to remind you folks
who might be a little shy to call that if
once you get over that initial call, you'll have a
whole new world, especially if you're a person that's alone,
you're up late at night, you'd like a community, right well,
as soon as you get over that initial fear and
call one time, see how much fun it is. Then
(24:32):
you have a voice in thirty eight states on WBZ,
and you'll have a community of and you know a
lot of the people that call in, you know them,
but they don't know you. So it's really worth it.
And I only bring this up because when I speak
to people in person, so many say I listen, but
I don't dare to call, And I think, and so
(24:55):
I'm trying to massage of folks that would really like
to call into just going for it one time. What's
the worst that can happen? We're friendly people, Yes, I hesitated,
I try to be all right. We're talking about automotive
laws that are going to be kicking in in New
(25:18):
England on January one. I do have Michael and Attleborough him. Michael,
you're on w b Z.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Thanks for Hey, how's your calling? Hope you had hope
you had a great holiday. It's been a couple of
things that have been irking me for the last, oh god,
twenty years. Really, remember, if you're from Massachusetts, remember the
right hand lane was the slow lane on a highway. Yes, sir, okay, okay,
(25:47):
they dropped that. But in addition, well I don't know
if they officially dropped it, But in addition to that,
they did this terrible, terrible thing where they the breakdown
lane to be opened during the you know, the busy times. Correct,
(26:07):
there are a number of people from out of state
that got killed because they pulled onto what they thought
was a breakdown lane because they had a flat of something.
So where is the the twain meet, as they say.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Even if even from Massachusetts, somehow as you can, and
somehow as you can if you get the hours wrong,
what if you just know? So it's crazy. I mean,
we should never have done that, Like the idea it was.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
I don't know, and I don't know how the federal government,
the Department of Transportation will approved it. And I don't
know if it's got something to do with that section
of highway is both a state highway and a federal highway.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I don't know. How that works.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
But what about the people have died. I mean you
never heard. No, you're about it.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
You're right, You're right, I mean it is. We should
never have allowed that to happen. So the enforcement of
the slow lane, the travel lane, and the passing lane
has not changed federally. Those you know, the the right
most lane is the is really only supposed to be
(27:21):
used if you're exiting the highway. Right, you're coming up
to an exit, Okay, I'm going to pull into that lane.
The middle lane is the travel lane, which is where
you're supposed to be, and the furthest leftmost lane is
passing passing only. That is that part of driving in
(27:41):
this country is where every other country beats us because
they know that that's the passing lane. Where they live here,
it's just another travel lane. People will, you know, set
their cruise control it's seventy two miles an hour and
just stay there, regardless of what the speed of the
traffic around them is.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
And on the right hand lane, left, the left.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
One, the left length the left right, and people will.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Stay in there whether they're passing anybody or not, and
that that causes problems for everybody Like you, you should
be in the You know, it's fine to pass somebody
and get back in, but you shouldn't be in that
lane unless you're passing.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
You know what. No one knows the rules and the
one and even if they did, they wouldn't care about it.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
It's it's just a message, right, And that gets to
the call and we spoke to before you know her.
You mentioned and Jane from Shrewsbury mentioned that we should
be tested on a regular basis and regardless of what
your age is like you know what my thing was
like jury duty? You know, well, well it's my turn.
(28:52):
I'm I'm gonna need to be tested this time around
on my general knowledge of how the highway works. It's
it's something we don't do. You get license when you're
sixteen and nobody ever asked you about it. Again, meanwhile,
things have changed a lot, right.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Yes, I mean I can tell you, excuse me, I
can tell you I was going up twenty four about
fifteen years ago, and this is when I had a
bad habit of always being laid everywhere. Now I just
accept that I'm going to be late.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
So the later late late. Now you're very late.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Behind the van. I was behind a van in the
right hand lane, and I was kind of pull in
to the breakdown and fly And I am glad I didn't.
Wasn't there a vehicle stopped going ten miles an hour
whatever they were doing when you know, when we finally
(29:49):
kept going and I looked, I looked over. If I
had pulled over, I would have been dead. They would
have been dead. But I just don't understand. I'm glad
that someone that agrees with me. I don't understand why
the safe police so whatever decided that wasn't drawn to
task on that.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah, I really don't know, to be honestly, Thank you
very much, Michael, appreciate that call.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, that was a good one.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
And it's it's always confused me why that section of
one slippery slope.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
The next thing, after breakdown lanes will be during the hours,
during rush hours, you can drive on the sidewalk right
right well, and that you you might laugh a little bit,
but they might make a rule that after you know,
between certain hours delivery motorcycles will be able to go
on the sidewalk, right folks. I never talk about bikes
(30:39):
and bike lanes, but I feel like I'm ready to
talk about that at any time, because so many towns
have spent so much money on bike lanes, reducing travel lands.
And I get it. A town that has fewer cars,
that's a good thing. I want to be like Amsterdam.
That's tremendous. How for what's happened? Is this all that money,
(31:02):
all your text money, they got spent on your bike lanes.
Those bike lanes are now delivery vehicle lanes. They are
lanes used. They've been usurped by motor scooters delivering stuff
growubhub and all that, and it's really dangerous for bicycle
(31:23):
artis and I don't, well, so this thing that people
are fine with that because well, it's good for business.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
This is again the difference between US and other countries
in that that wouldn't happen anywhere else, like there would
be enforcement, there would be a cultural like, hey, this
is not something that we do, so we don't do it,
and we tend not to think that way. We tend
to think like, well, if nobody's stopping me, then I'm
(31:52):
just gonna do.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Fact, everybody does it. And of course if I'm going
to talk about this, I just have to briefly address
the strain, philm that is the absolute agreement tomorrow. Motus
scooters don't seem to have to obey traffic laws. Why
is that they don't even start to obey many cases,
(32:14):
don't slow down for the red light. And everybody seems
okay with this. Nobody's doing anything about it, and nobody
will again until somebody that's some lawmaker knows gets hurt.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
And this gets to your point, like with cameras and stuff,
like they need to have a plate, they need to
be insured, they need to be insured, and they need
to be that needs to be enforced.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
And if you're working for a company, I think you
should be working for the company. So the companies on
the hook insurance wise as well. And so they can't
just say, well, independent contractor not not on me, because
it's possible that in some cases those companies are pushing
them to do.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
A little Yes, isn't doing that right because they know
that they're going to be on the hook for it?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Right all right?
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Six one, seven, two, five, four thirty is our number.
More in a moment on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio, we only.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Have a little while left with Craig Fitzgerald to get
to all these new laws that are going to kick
in regarding automotive issues on January one.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
So we have we have three states that we need
to cover, and we can cover two pretty quickly Rhode Island.
Rhode Island, some fees are going to go up, especially
in regards to EV's, which it's a little I don't know,
it's a little weird, uh removal of or they know, no.
(33:50):
So what they're going to do is registration fees are
based by weight in in Rhode Island. Uh so it's
a you know where EV's can be heavier. You may
pay some additional registration fee there. But also you're going
to get a fifteen dollars a year dot sub search
charge and a three dollars fifty cent fee if you
(34:13):
register an EV and you still have to pay an
xise tax there, which I think is I think staks.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Why should evs be exempt from x sciz tax.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
They're not exempt, you're going to pay They shouldn't be.
You should pay an excesse tax like everything else. What
they don't pay is gas tax because they're not buying gas,
but they're buying electricity, which is taxed like crazy.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Right, So now it's just an unfair fee as far
as I'm concerned.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
And then Vermont used car dealers in Vermont have to
retain records for all of their vehicle's last safety inspections,
which isn't I don't know what the issue is that
would have made that come up. But they also must
include a statement about the buyer right to get their
vehicle inspected by an independent mechanic of their choice before
(35:05):
the sale is completed. Can you say that in another
way so that I understand it? So, if you're buying
a car from a used car dealer, you must include
a statement somewhere that says you have the right to
go get this vehicle checked out by a mechanic, buy
an independent mechanic. They have to They have to tell
(35:26):
that to people, because I think most people don't realize
that they can ask to do that.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Is there any time after the sale? No, it's before
before the sale, right right? But they have to allow
you to take it somewhere. Correct, So the dealer I
might say, well, we don't like you to take it. Yeah,
they have to include a statement now that says you
you are within your rights to do that, okay, So,
which I think is you know, pretty good for the consumer.
So this is the big one. This is main.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Main.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
A few years ago, we talked about Kke Last trucks.
A few minutes ago.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
K Glass trucks are small pickup trucks built for the
Japanese market. They're just a little tiny cab and a
little tiny bed. They're minuscule vehicles, but they're very useful.
Most of them are four wheel drive, most of them
are right hand drive, and a ton of them got
imported here in the United States. Maine a few years
(36:23):
ago said you cannot you cannot register these because of
safety concerns. We don't believe that they have they haven't
passed us DOT certification, even though they are more than
twenty five years old. We will not register them in
the state of Maine. And it never made sense to
me why they did that until this makes sense. Now
(36:45):
you can register an ATV and then use it on
public roads in the state of Maine. So my feeling was,
my thought was that the ATV dealers in the state,
which are pretty there's a lot of them, had been
come powerful enough to lobby the state to a make
(37:05):
sure that you are able to register these things to
drive on the road. Atvatvs and restrict K class trucks,
which are essentially they do the same job, but they're
a lot cheaper than an ATV is.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Now, so people are gonna have to use ATVs to
do certain chores like farm chores, correct, correct, that need
to go on the road. So this is I see,
so people are using them.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
People are using them recreationally, right, basically they're yeah, they
may be using them for work too, for but these
are the side by side style ATVs that essentially are
like a car that have no safety regulations whatsoever, aside
from having a roll cage on them.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
They have seat belts, but you know you're not You've
not even required to use them.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
So the safety argument from the state about K T
was irrelevant, Like it's it doesn't mean anything, because if
you're willing to register these things for the road, the
K trucks are just as safe. They have good seatbelts,
they have a safety cage, they're just as safe as
an ATV would be.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
So the safety thing was a red herring.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Interesting and I think this I think it was leading
up to this where ATV dealers they knew they could.
You know, these things are expensive now they're twenty five
grand and up and they wanted to be able to
sell these.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Craig, I only have thirty seconds, so I want to
all right, man, I want to say bye, thank you
so much, but I also want you to tell everybody
who you said. I look like I'm not wearing a
hat or anything tonight.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
I looked at Bradley and he looked like Stanley Tucci.
I know I made your day.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
I love that Stanley Tucci has this really cool show
called Just Discovering Italy or something like that. Yeah, I
really appreciate that. You know. I do save my head everyone.
I do shave my head. I always wear a hat
because it's my head gets so cool. You yourself are
wearing a Santa hat. If any, it's not shame from
(39:11):
being bald. It's when you have a shaved head, if
your head gets cool. All right, thank you so very much, Craig.
Of course you're happy to be here. You're the man,
and I'm here for another couple of hours. Gonna be
open lines. I had such a good time last night
with you all the open lines. Let's do it again.
What do you say? Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
(39:32):
thirty
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