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Updated 4:45 p.m. WEDNESDAY. With legislators itching to hit the road in the next few days — maybe by the end of this week — final action was taken several transportation bills in the waning days of the General Assembly:

Wide boats.  H 2167 would let fishermen and other recreational boaters haul boats and trailers up to 10 feet wide on state roads without permits, up from the current 8.5-foot limit. It still faces a veto threat from Gov. Mike Easley unless nighttime towing -- dangerous on narrow roads, the Highway Patrol says -- is banned.

The Senate trimmed 6 inches from the nighttime regulation to allow boats and trailers up to 9.5 feet wide on the roads after dark, and approved the bill today. Now the House will consider it and Easley’s effort to keep 8.5 feet as the width limit for nighttime towing.

Driver's licenses. S 1799 authorizes DMV to start printing driver's licenses with laser-engraved black-and-white mugshots instead of the current color photo mugshots. That's partly to save money and also because the mugs would actually be  engraved on your plastic license card -- supposedly making it harder than with a printed photo to change your looks with, say, a Groucho mustache and glasses.

Current laser technology is limited to B&W images, but DMV would have the option in the future to change to laser-engraved color images. The Senate approved it and sent it to the governor today.

This bill also backs down from state pledge to deliver all driver's licenses to home addresses by mail. It turns out more than 133,000 drivers do not get home delivery from the U.S. Postal Service, including entire towns such as Micro in Johnston County.  These folks have to go to the nearest post office to pick up their mail, and that's how this bill would let them get their new driver's licenses.

Long trucks. S 1695 would let truckers haul 53-foot semi-trailers on more than 20,000 miles of North Carolina highways where the length limit now is 48 feet. Weight limits would be increased for some trucks that haul logs and cotton, and width limits would be increased for combines traveling on roads near farms.

Safety advocates and the Highway Patrol dropped their opposition after the House amended it to strengthen DOT safety engineers' authority to ban long trucks from certain dangerous roads. The Senate sent it to the governor today. 

Toll collection. S 1697 gives the NC Turnpike Authority some enforcement muscle it will need to collect tolls from turnpike scofflaws -- starting as soon as the end of 2010, when the Triangle Expressway is scheduled to accept its first paying customers. 

The bill authorizes DMV to withhold your car registration if you haven't paid your toll bills. The Senate concurred with House approval today.

Transit money. H 2363, the state's latest effort to get serious about public transit, has run out of gas this year.

It would set up a trust fund mechanism to pay primarily for urban transit projects.  It doesn't include state funds yet, but it would give urban counties new options (with approval by county commissioners and by voters) to raise local transit funds.  Primarily, a half-cent sales tax that would be dedicated to transit projects.

This bill didn't go anywhere this summer, primarily because Triangle legislators could not agree on the local option transit sales tax. It turns out that our local elected officials are not ready to stick their necks out on this.

Some oppose the sales tax as unfairly burdening low-income residents, and others say there are more things than transit clamoring for a piece of the next new local tax source.

So the transit legislation will return next year, perhaps with proposals for new statewide transit funding from the 21st Century Transportation Committee.