Ordinarily I'm all for federalism, local rule, and all that the founding fathers envisioned. But they couldn't have imagined how fast we could travel in the future. And given how widely Texans travel in their own vehicles, the prevalence of local laws that vary from the state law merely set up traps for unwary drivers -- like speed traps of old, which were merely revenue raising devices mainly targeting non-locals. And the most horrendous part of most traffic laws is that a violation requires no intent whatsoever. Common sense should tell us that traffic regulations should be uniform to the extent that they don't create some undue burden due to some unique local situation.
So it's nice that Texas Governor Abbott has included in the current extended session a request that the new state law against texting while driving preempt local ordinances. Will they hand the preemption bill over to the governor for signing? With only a few days left in the special session, we should know soon.
While we can still vote with our feet and move to a jurisdiction with laws we like to live under. Local traffic laws give municipalities to much capacity to become highway-robbers targeting travelers. I would like to think our founding fathers would approve giving the state priority.
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2:05 PM 8/4/2017
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