I'm a little torn today at the news that the state House has passed a bill that would make not wearing a seat belt a primary offense for which you can be pulled over. I'd generally describe myself as favoring seat belt laws - though I'd like to think that wearing a seat belt is something you'd do because it's a simple, barely invasive way to protect yourself should the unexpected happen - but maybe not this specific form of seat belt law.

The slippery slope seems to be the problem for me, though most of the examples of where the slope leads - cell phone use, loud music, animated conversations with a passenger - are also all situations that I also see as jeopardizing public safety. And for the hypocritical turn in this post, I'm OK with laws banning drivers from using cell phones. I think.

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In a barely related note, read an article today that Massport is halting the Logan Shuttle service that runs from Peabody. This would be sad news if we ever used the service, which we didn't. The Peabody line apparently has significantly lower ridership than the other lines, which the article seemed to blame on the line's opening shortly after 9/11. I can't imagine that helped, but I tend to think location is a major factor, too. The terminal is located on the southbound side of Route 1, kind of out in the sticks. Compare that to the Framingham location, which is near a shopping center just off of Route 9 (which is much easier to change direction on than Route 1, where you pretty much have the jug handle and an occasional underpass).

We thought about taking the Shuttle a couple of times when we were at Babson, but running the numbers it turned out that long term parking was cheaper. The bus ticket was $15, and the daily parking rate wasn't that much lower than long term.

One of the new alternatives to the Logan Shuttle mentioned in the article was an extra bus from Portsmouth that would stop in Newburyport before heading to Logan. Huh? From Beverly I think it's a push for driving time to Logan versus Newburyport.

Although I really don't want to drive to Logan ever again. I got to drop the wife off earlier in the week as she was out of town for work (happy to say she's back now), and it's pretty damn confusing. The signage indicates general direction, but doesn't indicate proper lane use. So when I went in the general direction for the terminal, I wound up going by the terminal before it. Irritating.

Thus ends the transportation portion of this month's blogging.