Microsoft ASP meeting, voting and driver’s license renewal day |
Loading ...Lots of activities on the agenda today. First, I went over and voted. This new rule about having to choose a party for the primary is BS, but I went with Democrat, for what it’s worth. The crazy blogger at Blogcritics who callse me a “right winger” probably won’t believe that. Next, I went down to renew my driver’s license. It’s my birthday on the 29th and it was time to get a new license for the next 5 years. $25 for the renewal fee, which seemed not too bad. They soak it to people with cars and motorcycle licenses though: $50??? Why double the cost for motorcycles? Cycles don’t beat up the roads as bad as cars … that makes no sense. Now I’m off to a meeting in Tumwater on ASP.NET and they are going to give me a copy of .NET 2005 Beta 1 for attending. Looking forward to this meeting and seeing what new and exciting things are coming.
The Washington State Motorcycle Safety Program is funded out of the fees for motorcycle endorsements. People who take the beginning riders course pay a fee of $100, and the remainder comes out of endorsements. It costs somewhere in the $225 - $250 range per student. There’s more on the program here: http://www.dol.wa.gov/ds/wmsp.htm
I taught motorcycle safety courses for about a decade, but stopped about 3 years ago when I no longer had enough time.
BTW, roads are primarily repaired out of gas taxes, not driver’s license fees. There is a considerable inequity WRT what cars and trucks pay - trucks do pay higher taxes, but IIRC, they do at least 100x the damage on a per-mile basis.
Eric
Comment by Eric Gunnerson — September 14, 2004 @ 5:29 pm PST
Thanks for the info, Eric, as well as stopping by and making a comment. I used to have a motorcycle license in Wisconsin and have been thinking about getting one out here but the problem with that is it seems like not a lot of respect is paid to bikers in this area
It is probably good that guys like you were around teaching safety courses.
Comment by TDavid — September 14, 2004 @ 8:53 pm PST
I think that’s mostly a reflection of our traffic volume issues - I don’t think any vehicle operators get a lot of respect, though it’s obviously more impactful if you ride a motorycle or bicycle.
The MSF curriculum that the state teaches is top-notch, BTW. If you’ve never taken a course and are thinking about maybe getting a bike, it’s a great way to spend a weekend.
The riding around here isn’t quite as good as it was 15 years ago when I started riding, but we still have lots of good scenery.
Comment by Eric — September 15, 2004 @ 11:29 am PST