No more inspections
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I am surprised they actually did this. NH just passed legislation to abolish mandatory car inspections. Ever since I remember, once a year--in your birth month--there has been a legal requirement to have one's car inspected. Starting next year that will no longer be so which means my last mandatory inspection will be in November.
I have always felt that putting the requirement in one's birth month was cruel. They should have put it six months out from one's birth month. Doesn't matter now.
I have to admit a slight sense of cheerfulness over this, if only because it means I can get my car inspected whenever I want and I can keep my birth month clear for celebration!
It's not all that surprising considering NH doesn't have a mandatory seatbelt law (except for children under a certain age), and no helmet requirement for motorcyclists.
This new law passed, I believe, because of the large republican majority of the legislature and the new republican governor.
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I don't study the effects of this kind of regulation, but the basis is pretty clear. Similar to the case for mandatory auto insurance and many other situations where there are "externalities." If I fail to maintain my vehicle, that raises the probability that I will kill you or someone in your family because my tires are bald or because my wipers don't work well in the rain any more.
This is a very difficult idea to test empirically because of "selection." People who don't get their vehicles inspected aren't a random draw of the population. The people who don't get an inspection may be more likely to be bad drivers for other reasons and cause lots of havoc.
Early tests of the idea showed pretty large (and good) effects of regulation at reducing accident rates. More recently, however, the evidence isn't as strong ... likely because car quality is getting better for a lot of reasons.
