Merli Column: Driving a negative trend in the region

As lawmakers in Richmond continue searching for creative ways to save money in this fitfully cantankerous economy, let’s hope one of their stunts doesn’t replicate the irresponsible gesture that the
District of Columbia just committed.

In the greater Virginia, Maryland and D.C. region, soon only the Commonwealth will have any form of state inspections for private and commercial vehicles. Yeah, I hate waiting in line at the State
Inspection station, too, once a year (especially since I usually wait until my tags are only hours away from expiring). But it’s an annual “rite of passage” (in more ways than one) worth continuing.

Maryland, for its part, has no state inspections (nor do most other states). D.C. curiously chose to do away with its state inspections starting Oct. 1, even though the AAA said more than one-third of all
D.C. cars failed inspections a year ago. And for all of this, the mayor’s office (who instigated the stoppage) said it hopes to save an underwhelming $400,000 a year. Not $4 million … $400,000. (That’s
equal to a bad lunch in Washington these days.)

You’ve heard the saying, “What goes around, comes around”? That’s quite literally true when it comes to the Washington Beltway, and if you’ve ever played the “license plate game” with your kids in the
car in Northern Virginia, you know that a whole lot of vehicles that “come around” to our neck of the woods carry D.C. and Maryland plates.

I could be wrong about this (it’s been known to happen), but I’m thinking the State Inspection system in Virginia has gotten far more stringent over the years, at least judging from the simple fact that they
seem to take a lot longer than they used to. (Either that, or mechanics have gotten a lot slower. I prefer to think they’re more thorough.)

Last week when I went in for an inspection on a 10-year-old car, I wound up having to replace the windshield wipers and a turn-signal light — two inexpensive, albeit potentially crucial tools to have on
a vehicle.

Admittedly, sometimes we get hit with far bigger unexpected repairs bills before we can pass muster. A year ago at a State Inspection station off Old Bridge Road in Woodbridge I’ve been going to for
decades, I wound up having to pay for new brake pads and a new belt before I got the safety sticker. Still, better to deal with it there in the safety of the service bay, I told myself, than cruising down
Prince William Parkway.

So it’s hardly comforting to know that two of the three largest jurisdictions in our region will soon require no type of inspections at all. (Periodic emission tests, however, are still required in Virginia, D.C. and Maryland — which means even though all those uninspected vehicles will turn into potentially lethal weapons on the highway, at least they won’t be polluting the air at the same time.)

As if there are not enough distractions competing for our driving attention these days (we won’t even get into cell calls and texting), the shortsightedness of D.C.’s local government and the apparent lack
of concern by Maryland certainly dilutes the Commonwealth’s vehicle safety precautions. Typically, there’s plenty of “research” on both sides of the state inspection argument. While the District notes one
study from North Carolina that concludes that inspections have virtually no effect at all on road safety, another study in Pennsylvania finds annual vehicle check-ups can significantly reduce the number of
fatal crashes.

Yet I know people in Prince William who have owned vehicles for years — and have never looked under the hood! Not even once. They don’t even know what type of spare tire may be sitting in the trunk
(or if they have one). Except for the occasional oil change, nothing usually goes wrong in their vehicle until it actually goes wrong in their vehicle, and maybe at 70 mph: A flat tire from a bald wheel that
never would have passed inspection; a broken belt; faulty headlights; or suddenly no brakes.

We may be in the minority of states, but in this instance Virginia gets it right. Too bad our neighbors to the north and south don’t get it, too.

John Merli has been a Prince William County resident since 1984, and a Potomac News columnist since 1985. E-mail him at .