Raleigh's Tift Merritt has a lovely song that comes to mind on the General Assembly's frantic "Crossover Day." Any bill that didn't clear one chamber by the end of the day Thursday was eliminated from consideration by the other chamber.

In a weary voice, Merritt sings:

I don't want to talk to nobody,
Don't want to make no plans,
I'm so tired of this party,
I've had all my laughs.
I'll send you something when I cross over,
Something when I cross over.

Here's where we stand, after Crossover Day, on major transportation legislation: ... [MORE]

Most drivers know vaguely that we pay a price for driving faster and faster on the highway: as speed climbs, fuel economy declines -- faster and faster.

But how much faster, exactly? How much does it cost to stomp on that gas pedal? (1/29/13 update: See today's Road Worrier with reader comments.)

Three engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have worked out the answers. They tested a variety of 74 vehicles at 50, 60, 70 and 80mph. For each 10mph increase, they charted the corresponding decline in mpg. ... [MORE]

View Academy Road @ Duke University Road in a larger map

NCDOT traffic engineers are planning changes that should make drivers more alert to the dangers of a sharp curve in Durham where five people have died in high-speed crashes since 1992.

Matthew Grape, a Duke University senior, was killed Sept. 15 when a car driven by a fellow student crashed into trees near a curve on N.C. 751 (Academy Road) just south of Duke University Road.  The speed limit is 35 mph, but investigators said the car was traveling at 70 mph. 

Four other people died in two crashes at the same spot in the 1990s, in cars going faster than 80 mph.  Alcohol was involved in all three crashes.

Kelly L. Becker, a regional DOT traffic engineer, recommended today that DOT install three black-on-yellow arrow chevrons on the outside of the curve, replacing one there now.  She recommended two new signs to  remind northbound drivers that they are approaching the curve, and the relocation of an existing curve-ahead sign to provide more advance warning for southbound drivers.

"I think this will provide more visibility for that curve," Becker said. "It is a pretty sharp curve."

I’m wise to you, Copper: You gave me that speeding ticket just because we’re in a recession. The government is hurting for money, so you’re under orders to generate more traffic fines.

Right?

Wrong. It’s a bogus theory, but we keep hearing about it because it’s irresistible -- the argument that economic recession is driving an increase in traffic tickets.

USA Today is the latest news outlet to hype this idea, and it’s based on scant evidence. The paper quotes the president of the National Motorists Association, a suspect source who makes his living as an advocate for speeding drivers. He thinks cops are enforcing speed limits more strictly these days. Really?

And USA Today resurrects a silly paper by two economists from the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis. They counted North Carolina traffic tickets for 13 years and reported that ticket numbers increased in the years FOLLOWING recession.

Here's the clincher: They concluded -- apparently without any interviews or reality checks in North Carolina -- that Tar Heel troopers and traffic cops were just trying to erase government red ink. ... [MORE]

OK, law enforcement agencies look smart when they work together to promote public safety. But they look dumb when they can't even agree on a single slogan and clear, coordinated public info about something as basic as a statewide speed-trap campaign.

The Highway Patrol (part of the Dept. of Crime Control and Public Safety) outhustled the Governor's Highway Safety Program (part of NCDOT) this morning when it released numbers of speeding and other tickets issued during its recent two-week statewide "Operation Slow Down" program. Troopers wrote tickets for 46,913 violations, including 21,305 for speeding.

Minutes later, the Governor's Highway Safety Program issued more comprehensive info. While the Highway Patrol only mentioned its own ticket-count, the GHSP reported on the efforts of city cops, county deputies and state troopers statewide. Along with its own pet slogan, "No Need 2 Speed," the GHSP graciously referred to the Highway Patrol and its program as well.

Here are the larger stats from GHSP: During the two weeks that ended Nov. 29, all the various state and local cops cited 31,760 motorists for speeding. In all, they wrote citations for 83,118 criminal and traffic violations.

Along the way, they grabbed 98 stolen cars and -- good grief! -- "615 fugitives from justice."

Wake was the top county for tickets: 7,307 in all, including ... [MORE]

Those wonderful folks offering to repaint the automobiles of neighborhood speeders are now onl the Web -- TheAngryNeighbors.blogspot.com -- and on Twitter -- http://twitter.com/AngryNeighbors -- and the message is getting around.

Wired folk from as far away as Raleigh and Oxnard, Calif. have enquired about getting their own warning signs like those that appeared yesterday on Markham Avenue in Duke Park. (See photo below.) And a TV report on the signs is linked from The Drudge Report and CNN's Web front pages.

And even the Durham Police Department has responded. According to TheAngryNeighbors, "They state that 46 hours of police activity resulted in 64 citations being written" in the area near the signs.

Not everyone is amused, though. One nose-out-of-joint paintballer commented in an email to a neighborhood group, "If my vehicle is shot, some heads are gonna roll."

I was making a quick trip to Asheville last weekend, up on Friday night, back on Saturday afternoon. It had been a while, though I made the journey several times over the last couple of years.

This one was particularly brutal, mainly because of a steady and hard downpour -- both ways.

But it didn't help that, going the speed limit, I was passed time and again by people who were easily over that limit by 10 or 15 miles an hour, at least. And this was in the rain! It was absolutely amazing. Visibility was bad, and there's no time worse than on a dark night in the rain.

I don't get it. Let's say you're 10 miles over the limit, over a distance of 200 miles. You're going to save a matter of minutes in the course of the trip, but you are ramping up the chance of an accident. It's not worth it.

On this weekend, there were far more people passing me than not passing me. I admit, I'm kidded by some of my friends as being overly cautious, and it may be that someone who's creeping along an interstate highway at 15 miles under the limit, as some people do (not I), is indeed a hazard to others. But there aren't that many of them. Not compared with the amateur NASCAR types out there.

Slow it down. For your own sakes, and for mine.