TRAFFIC LAWS AND ORDINANCES 259

istic and practical bodies. It is not enough for the label to indicate
the need for the product, it should also indicate and resolve to the
extent possible any imaginable administrative difficulties in imple-
mentation. Equally important it should show that it's worth the cost.

Recommended programs should be realistic, and should be offered
with a sense of perspective. For example, the requirement of periodic
reexamination of drivers sounds simple and easy enough, but a closer
examination of the proposal shows that the new administrative and
capital costs to a state for this one requirement could easily run to
$20 million or even $30 million. No matter how you look at it, this
is a large amount of money and remember we are talking about only
one small ripple in a very big pond.

There is a pressing need for more creative and imaginative pro-
grams. Examples, and these are not restricted to Maryland, are laws
dealing with implied consent and mechanical inspection. These bills
have been introduced session after session, and have failed to gain
adoption. There can be no doubt as to their value to an overall
traffic safety program, so the immediate problem is how do we con-
vince the Legislature of this fact. We have tried the conventional
means with statistics, charts, and expert opinion, so perhaps we should
now look toward a novel, or even unconventional, approach such as
focusing on the problems to which these laws are directed.

In closing, I want to emphasize a basic belief I hold in the philos-
ophy of government, and it obviously applies to the field of traffic
safety. AH of the things we want to do should be done because they
are sound and in the public interest, and not because they are neces-
sary to avoid penalties. The latter is a spurious reason and one which
most legislators not only refuse to accept, but frequently use as an
argument to oppose the legislation involved. We have a long way to
go, and the end is not in sight, but through the work of this National
Committee and other Federal and State agencies we can point with
pride to the progress that has been made and look with hope to the
future.