A Durham Jiffy Lube mechanic was jailed on a felony charge today after a Duke University librarian said he solicited $30 to overlook worn tires that would cause her Lexus to flunk a safety inspection. (11/9 story with reader comments.)

Officers for the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles arrested Joshua C. Clark, 28, who works at a Jiffy Lube outlet on N.C. 55 in southern Durham. He was jailed in lieu of $1,000 bail, in connection with the Nov. 1 inspection of a 2001 Lexus owned by Rosalyn Raeford of Durham (see today's Road Worrier column with reader comments).  

“I’m sorry to see anybody get into trouble, but this was his doing,” said Rosalyn Raeford, who complained about Clark to DMV after her Nov. 1 inspection. “I’m sorry that has happened to him, but I’m not sorry I reported it.” ... [MORE]

Gov. Bev Perdue said today that she has asked the state Division of Motor Vehicles for an assessment of North Carolina's mandatory car safety and emissions inspections because we "need to know if we need this kind of system," the Charlotte Observer reported. [11/3 update: see today's Perdue story.]

Perdue was responding to stories by The News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer raising questions about whether the inspections are reliable, effective and necessary. Inspection garages report finding safety flaws in one out of every 10 safety inspections, failing 3 percent of the cars and making repairs necessary to pass another 7 percent.

Legislators said this week they will push to eliminate the safety inspection requirement for all cars or at least for cars only a few years old.

North Carolina is among a dwindling number of states that require safety inspections for every car, every year.  Including cars that are nearly new, only a year or two old.

I’m doing some reporting on this.  I’d like to know what drivers think about taking their cars in for safety inspection each year (I’m not concerned here about emissions inspections):

Does this inspection requirement help you keep your tires, brakes, lights, wipers etc working properly?
Does it make your car safer?
Or is inspection a waste of your time and money?

Please share your experience and your opinion on mandatory car safety inspections.

Email me or call me at 919-829-4527. Don't forget to include your name and contact info.

The state Division of Motor Vehicles says it has published forms for driving logs that will be required, starting next year, for thousands of teens seeking their driver’s licenses.

Teens who get learner’s permits after Jan. 1 will be subject to a new law requiring them to drive with front-seat supervision by a parent or other qualified adult for at least 60 hours spread over several weeks, including 10 hours at night.

They’ll have to fill out the logs, signed by parents, to document the supervised driving when they apply for provisional licenses -- after 12 months with their learner's permits -- starting in 2013. ... [MORE]

The General Assembly this morning approved a 14-month delay in the effective date for signed driving logs -- documenting that parents were in the front seat to supervise 60 hours of driving -- that will be required before 16- or 17-year-olds can get their driver's licenses. [See 9/15/11 story.]

Parents and teens needed more time to comply -- and DMV needed more time, too.

This changes a law, enacted in June, that added several tough new provisions to North Carolina's graduated licensing program.

Parents or other supervising adult drivers must sign the logs to show that they supervised 60 hours of driving, spread out over at least six weeks. The original legislation said the logs would be added to the requirements for any provisional driver's license issued after Oct. 1.  Teens at least 16 years old, who have had limited learner's permits for at least a year, are eligible for provisional licenses.

The rewritten language, approved today, says the 60-hour logs will be required for any teen 15 or older who receives a limited learner's permit after Jan. 1.  That means it will apply to provisional licenses issued after Jan. 1, 2013. ... [MORE]

No telling how long it will take the state Division of Motor Vehicles to approve the format for a simple driving log -- soon to be required for all teen drivers under legislation adopted this year to strengthen the state's graduated licensing program.

But why wait? Make your own log now, and transfer the info later to the official form, when DMV finally publishes it. 

You can start using an informal version of teen driving logs distributed now by DMV as part of a driving safety program (see below).

As the Road Worrier reported today, the legislature might -- or might not -- take action in September to correct an error in the new law, which as written causes unintended problems for 110,000 teens who have their limited learner's permits now and hope soon to get their provisional licenses.

If we're lucky, the legislature will exempt kids who already have their learner's permits, so they won't have to produce these parent-signed logs. One parent, Pam Bobay, said by email that she isn't putting all her faith in the legislature to fix this ... [MORE]

Don't plan on applying for a driver's license Monday, or doing anything else at your local DMV driver's license office.  All driver's license offices across the state will be closed for the day.

DMV says the shutdown is necessary as part of a nationwide system upgrade for the National Driver Register, a 50-state database with information about drivers whose licenses have been revoked or suspended, or who have been convicted of serious traffic violations.

Licence plate agencies -- where you get tags, titles and other DMV things for your car -- will be open as usual Monday.  But if you need a driver's license or permit or ID card from DMV, you'll have to wait until Tuesday.

Quick, what was the number on that license plate?

I think it was 88 -- just like on Dale Junior's No. 88 National Guard / AMP Energy Chevrolet. 

Or maybe not. Cops and traffic cameras have a hard time deciphering the actual license numbers of some of North Carolina's colorful specialty license plates -- especially those rolling NASCAR billboards, which compound the confusion by adding a race-car driver's number, which is not part of the actual license number.

So Mike Robertson, the DMV commissioner, wants to get rid of the colors and convert these pretty and popular plates to the standard blue numerals on white background. (See today's story.) ... [MORE]

View I-85 Yadkin River Bridge in a larger map

In her proposed budget for FY 2010-2011, Gov. Bev Perdue proposes to establish the N.C. Mobility Fund with $74.6 million in DMV fee hikes and $22 million that would have been diverted from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund.

The N.C. Mobility Fund will be used "to address critical congestion bottlenecks and to improve our logistics capabilities," Perdue said in a letter to the General Assembly.

First dibs on the money, if the legislature agrees, would be to help pay for a $330 million replacement for the antique bridge that carries Interstate 85 over the Yadkin River near Salisbury. ... [MORE]

More than a few drivers have been irked by a rules change implemented this week at DMV, where car owners are being told to pay for repeat safety and emissions inspections of vehicles that were checked just a few months ago.

DMV changed the rules Monday, saying now that your inspection is good only if it came no more than 90 days before the deadline to renew your car registration. This conflicts with DMV's pledge that nobody will be forced to get two inspections within 12 months.

Henry Martin of Charlotte called a toll-free DMV number (877-421-0020). Tracy Keel, who oversees DMV inspections, had promised N&O and Charlotte Observer readers that operators would solve such problems.

No such luck, Martin said. ... [MORE]