Drive Through

But for those like Dorn, who lament years of heedless red-light running, relief may be on the way. (That, or yet another foolhardy public-awareness program.) Harry Skinner, chief of the Federal Highway Administration's Traffic Control Division reports that Thomas Larson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, has sounded a red alert over red lights. "He feels we may need a campaign to get people to stop at red lights, like the seat-belt effort," Skinner explains, itching to promote red-light transgressions to their rightful place within the pantheon of vehicular shame.

"I personally feel there's a relationship between compliance with one law and another. For instance, the continual violation of the 55-mile-per-hour law makes people less prone to stop completely at stop signs and lights, and it's more annoying to me than anyone else in the world, because I've worked with traffic devices all my life," says Skinner, whipping himself into a bureaucratic froth. "I'm very old. I was raised at a time when we got whacked if we didn't follow a rule. I don't think people get whacked any more."

Not, at least, if they can manage to avoid Miami at rush hour.