I called ZipCar immediately on my cell phone. The rep with whom I spoke first verified that everyone was OK and then went through the “customer was in an accident” script quickly, efficiently, and politely. I received email within minutes of our phone call telling me everything I needed to know and do. It was all quite reasonable.

The next day I received a phone call and followup email message from Gordon, the guy at ZipCar who would be handling the incident. Gordon reminded me on the phone that because I hadn’t paid for ZipCar’s collision damage waiver, I was liable for up to $500 of the cost of repairing the damage. This was not a surprise to me. I was pretty pissed at the hit-and-run driver for sticking me with a $500 repair bill, but that was the driver’s fault, not ZipCar’s. I was resigned to pay the $500 when I read this in the followup email from Gordon:

If you have a credit card with rental collision coverage, now is a good time to start up a claim with them.

I pulled my credit card out of my wallet, observed the word “platinum” on the front which had never mattered before but might now suddenly be important, and gave them a call. Lo and behold, I do in fact have rental collision coverage, and with one more phone call, I was able to open a claim with MasterCard to be reimbursed for the $500.

The claim administrators at MasterCard demanded a whole slew of paperwork to process the claim, much of which had to come from ZipCar. I sent the list of documents to ZipCar later that day, July 13.

Two days later, only three days after the incident, the car was fully repaired and back in service, and Gordon had sent all the necessary paperwork to MasterCard.

Having somebody hit your rental car in a parking lot couldn’t possibly be described as a positive experience, but the folks at ZipCar managed to make it as painless as it could possibly have been. Yet another in a long series of positive ZipCar experiences. This company gets it.

(ZipCars are available in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, London, the NY/NJ Metro Area, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington DC, and more than 100 university campuses across North America. If I’ve convinced you that ZipCar is for you, click the ad in the sidebar of my blog, and you and I will both get some free driving out of the deal!)

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It’s quite convenient that they label their vehicles “mayor’s office” so it’s easy to see when our mayor’s staff is giving us peons the finger, eh?

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That’s Massachusetts “official vehicle” license plate number MB2839.

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And this one is license plate number MB2677.

To the editor:

It has been painful to watch the avalanche of flawed statistics and discredited urban legends wielded by opponents of a primary enforcement seat-belt law in their foolhardy efforts to stop a law which would undeniably save lives.

Jonah Goldberg informs us that since there are states with higher traffic fatality rates that have primary enforcement laws, such laws must be useless.  His simplistic analysis ignores the prime directive of statistical research, i.e., that statistical variations between two samples are only relevant if all other factors have been taken into account.  Study after study that did take such factors into account have proved that primary enforcement dramatically increases seat-belt use and that increased seat-belt use dramatically decreases accident injury and fatality rates.

A recent letter writer claimed that since millions of people who don’t wear seatbelts have not been killed in accidents, seatbelts don’t save lives.  It would make just as much sense to say that since people who don’t play Russian roulette don’t shoot themselves in the head, Russian roulette isn’t dangerous.

That same letter writer trotted out the ridiculous myth that seatbelts can trap passengers in vehicles that are submerged or on fire.  The fact is that, as documented by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, virtually every study ever conducted indicates that lap and shoulder belts cut the risk of serious or fatal injury by 40 to 55%.

While the Herald may have a journalistic obligation to present both sides of every story, I do not think that obligation extends to printing absurdities and lies.

Jonathan Kamens
Brighton 

Over a decade ago, it was a joke: A BU professor involved in a conference on rights for people with disabilities was hosting a visiting Italian professor. The visitor asked why the crosswalk light was beeping. “It’s for people who can’t see,” our professor explained. Her colleague yelled, “You let blind people drive?”

Apparently, now we do.

The story about the older men losing their eyesight (“What does being old have to do with it?” Feb. 12) was like running a sob story about an alcoholic who knows he will drive drunk but wants to be cut some slack to maim or kill since he visits his sister and likes to shop in Lynn.

We are not talking about “bad” drivers; anyone can be a bad driver and learn to be better one. We are talking about impaired drivers.

Older citizens should be using their political acumen to improve transportation and community networks so that individual cars are not lifelines, not lobbying for the right to knowingly drive impaired.

A… Kamens

To the editor:

Concerning the tragic, fatal car crash in Leicester, high school principal Tom Lauder said, “It’s not like they did anything wrong.” Unfortunately, he’s wrong… dead wrong.

The speed limit where the crash occurred was 30 mph. Police believe that the driver was traveling as fast as 70 mph, over double the limit.

To find out where teen drivers learn to speed, most parents need only look in the mirror. The majority of Massachusetts drivers ignore speed limits as a matter of course. Is it any surprise that their teen-aged children, who have watched their parents speed for 16 1/2 years, emulate their behavior?

The recent changes to the Junior Operator License law will do little to reduce tragic accidents, as long as adult drivers continue to perpetuate a culture of disregard for the rules of the road. Perhaps rather than showing teens in driver’s education classes videos of horrific accidents caused by speeding, the videos should be shown to their parents.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

He claimed before issuing me the citation that passing on the right at that intersection was illegal because there was a double yellow line down the middle of the road (false), that I only slowed down after he turned on his lights (false), and that the bus lane extended all the way to the intersection and hence cars were not allowed to drive on the portion of the road (false — as the paint on the road clearly shows, the bus lane ends something like 50 feet before the intersection).

He also said that the guy in front of me who passed him while making a right turn at the intersection was also in violation of the same law, but oddly enough he didn’t give that guy a ticket — he only gave one to me, of course because he thought I was trying to pass him and it ticket him off (can you say “arbitrary and capricious”?).

On the citation, he wrote “improper passing (yellow line)”.  Since the yellow line has nothing to do with a passing on the right violation, I believe the “(yellow line)” notation renders the citation defective and hence potentially invalid.

Of course, I asked for a hearing on the citation.  The morning before the hearing, I visited the intersection during rush hour with my digital camera and videotaped people driving through the intersection for 15 minutes.  I counted 43 different cars passing left-turning vehicles on the right, and two cars passing vehicles that were actually going straight.

The trooper was correct that the latter is illegal, and if I had been intending to do that or had actually done it, I would have gritted my teeth and paid the citation rather than contesting it.  But that was not my intent, and I had already started to slow down when he stopped me, and I didn’t actually pass him before he stopped me, which means that he never actually observed me committing the offense for which he gave me a citation.

For my hearing, I printed out references from MGL and the driver’s manual, 45 pictures of cars passing in the intersection, and a few pictures of the intersection itself from various angles.  I also wrote an outline presenting the facts described above to assist me in making my case at the hearing.

At the initial hearing before a clerk magistrate, the trooper who issued the citation doesn’t have to show up and usually doesn’t.  Instead, one trooper shows up representing the Commonwealth for all citations, and that trooper is legally required to have a copy of each citation in lieu of the trooper who issued it.

The punchline: The trooper didn’t have a copy of my citation, so I was found “not responsible” without having to make any case at all.  I joked with the clerk as he was handing me my paperwork that I was disappointed that all the work I’d done was for naught, and he said with a twinkle in his eye, “Well, if you’d like, you can appeal your `not responsible’ verdict.”  I declined his kind offer.

It is worth noting that the three people whose hearings were heard before mine were all found “not responsible.”

Moral of the story: Always contest a moving violation, at least if you think it was undeserved.  A more unscrupulous person might leave off the last part of the moral, but personally, if I think I deserved the ticket, I’ll grit my teeth, pay the ticket, and live with the surcharge.

However, before I get into the whole righteous indignation thing, I feel compelled to mention how amazing this homeland of ours is.  Where else can one walk around town and see streets named “Mendele Mocher Seforim” or “Zerubavel”?  Where else can one run into trouble trying to return something to the supermarket Friday afternoon, because the supermarket closes early on Erev Shabbat?  Walking home from the closed supermarket with the item I had tried to return, I suppose I should have been irritated at being unable to return it, but I wasn’t.  I was overjoyed to see the supermarket closed, and overjoyed to see the nearly empty streets.

There is an energy in Jerusalem, a feeling of holiness that you just can’t ignore.  It is truly remarkable.

I’m pretty sure I’d go crazy in short order if I ever tried to make aliya.  But at the same time, I know that this is my home and where I truly belong.  A.B. Yehoshua is right: it is impossible to be fully Jewish outside the land of Israel.

And now, on with the righteous indignation…

For our first week in Israel, we stayed in an apartment in Jerusalem which we rented from an Israeli man who lives in Cleveland.  We know about this man and his apartment because A…’s mother helped his son find scholarships for college (this is what she does for a living).  It was Israeli “protectsia” at its best.  The building is located two blocks from the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall and within walking distance of the Old City.  It’s something like 18 stories tall and makes a distinctive mark on the skyline, since some of the upper floors are glass-paneled rather than Jerusalem stone and there’s a visible rooftop garden.

Yesterday, we left Jerusalem to spend a couple of days in Tel Aviv and then do some touring in the North (incidentally, I highly recommend the Dan Panorama in Tel Aviv; we got a very good rate from hotels.com).  About an hour before we were ready to leave for Tel Aviv, I called a cab company to order a “special” taxi for the entire family and all our baggage.  Note for the folks who haven’t visited Israel: there’s regular inter-city van taxi services throughout Israel.  Usually, one end of the trip is fixed (e.g., vans going from the airport to wherever you want to go in Jerusalem, or vans going from a specific location in Jerusalem to wherever you want to go in Tel Aviv), and you share the van with others who are going to the same city.  A “special” is a dedicated van that picks you up and drops you off wherever you want, and you’re the only passengers.

We were assured that the van would arrive in an hour.  Of course, it didn’t.  It arrived 45 minutes late, after several heated conversations between me, the dispatcher, and the driver, who apparently circled around our (one-way) street five or six times in heavy traffic but was unable to figure out how to actually get onto it.  Finally, I went out onto the street with my cell phone, flagged down the driver, and showed him where he had to turn to get to the apartment building.

He said that neither he nor anyone in the office of the cab company knew where the street was or how to get onto it.  This, despite the fact that it’s less than a half mile from the office, it’s within shouting distance of the biggest pedestrian mall in the city, the building in question is 18 stories tall and easily visible from anywhere in the city, and I told the dispatcher how to get to the street when I called to order the cab.  I asked the driver when he finally arrived why he or the dispatcher didn’t look at a map of the city, and he said they don’t have one.  This is Israeli culture at its best (and why I would go crazy if I tried to live here).

But the story isn’t over.  I actually visited the office of the cab company the previous night and asked them how much the cab would cost.  They said it would cost NIS (New Israeli Sheqel) 250.  When I informed the driver of this, he (of course!) argued with me and said that he didn’t agree to that price, so why should he have to honor it.  We got that out of the way after some haggling, and he agreed to honor the price that had been quoted to me.

Meanwhile, we were arguing back and forth about exactly whose fault it was that he was 45 minutes late.  Why should he be expected to absorb the cost of driving around for 45 minutes looking for our building?  Why was it his fault that he couldn’t find the street?  Etc., etc.  He actually called the dispatcher and chewed him out about it wasn’t OK to keep me waiting, wasn’t OK that no one at the office knew how to get to the street, wasn’t OK that they sent him to the wrong place, etc.  Then he tried to commiserate with me about how no one at the office cared about him or me and it was the two of us against them!  This was all part of his efforts to get me to pay more than the price that had been quoted to me.  I was his new best friend, and all he wanted to do was make me happy.

Next we had to deal with the fact that I had to add a stop to the trip — my parents, who had been staying at a nearby hotel until the day before, had left a bag at the front desk containing my tallit, which I had accidentally left at the hotel when I visited on Shabbat, and I had to get to the hotel to pick up the bag.  I informed the driver that I needed to stop at the hotel to pick up the bag, and that given that he arrived 45 minutes late, I expected him to add the additional stop to the route at no additional charge.  Of course, he didn’t agree to that, which is what I expected; it was just my initial bargaining position.  He offered to stop off at the hotel for an additional NIS 50, a ridiculous charge since a cab from our building to the hotel wouldn’t cost more than NIS 30.  I told him I’d give him NIS 275 for the whole trip and not a sheqel more.  He argued, but in the end he agreed.

I know I’m not doing justice to the whole exchange.  It was just so amusing how the driver was at the same time trying to befriend me, make me feel at ease, and extract as much money as possible out of the situation.

In the middle of the trip to Tel Aviv, the driver pulled out a cigarette and asked if it was OK to smoke.  I told him we’d really rather he didn’t, since A… wasn’t feeling well and cigarette smoke bothers her even in the best of circumstances.  He insisted that he’d hold the cigarette out the window and it wouldn’t bother us at all, and he just had to have a cigarette because he had a terrible headache.  So, of course, in the end he smoked the cigarette, and of course the smoke bothered A….  Thank God, he listened when I asked him to only smoke one.  I’d been starting to feel a little warmth toward the guy and was thinking about giving him more than 275, but the cigarette incident put a stop to that.

On the way, we discussed our plans for the rest of our trip.  When we told him that we were planning on hiring a taxi to take us from the North back to the Jerusalem area (Maale Adumim) for Shabbat, he told us we should call him and he’d come pick us up.  Can you believe the chutzpah?!  As far as he’s concerned, we’re the best of friends and all he wants to do is drive us around Israel!  Yes, sir, I’d go crazy living here, but don’t you just love it?

Did I mention that he had to call the dispatcher to find out where the Dan Panorama is in Tel Aviv, despite the fact that it’s one of the biggest, fanciest hotels in the city?  At least he found it on the first try.

Of course, when we got out of the cab at the hotel he tried to convince me to give him more money than we’d agreed to.  I would have if it hadn’t been for the cigarette, but I held firm, and in the end, off he drove with the reminder for us to call him Friday morning and he’d come get us and bring us back to Jerusalem.  I haven’t decided yet whether I’m going to call him.

I’m not sure what the moral of the story is, except perhaps that although my Hebrew isn’t all that good, it’s best when I’m arguing .

You’ve all been on the losing end of this one, right? You’re sitting at a red light, waiting patiently, but when the light changes, you still can’t go, because the vehicles traveling in the cross-wise direction are blocking the intersection, and traffic is backed up so they can’t get out of it.

Blocking cross traffic isn’t only a bad idea. In most states, it’s illegal for a motor vehicle to enter an intersection if there isn’t sufficient room for the vehicle on the other side.

New York City waged a highly successful “Don’t block the box!” campaign in the 1980′s. The “box” is the square formed by the four corners of an intersection. NYC made the box obvious at a number of problem intersections by painting an outline and grid over the entire area. After an aggressive driver-education campaign, they sent the police out in force to issue citations to people who blocked the box, i.e., were caught in the intersection after their light turned red. These citations resulted in both a fine and license points, and people were cited even if the light was green when they entered the intersection.

Since then, “Don’t block the box!” campaigns have been initiated in a number of cities.

Let’s look at what a few states’ driver’s manuals have to say about this.

• California: “Do not enter the intersection if you cannot get completely across before the light turns red. If you block the intersection, you can be cited.”
• Ohio: “A driver must stop before entering an intersection if there is not sufficient space on the other side to accommodate the vehicle. The law applies whether or not a traffic signal gives a driver the right to proceed.”
• Massachusetts: “If you are crossing an intersection, make sure you have enough room to make it completely through. Never block an intersection.”
• New York: “You may not enter an intersection if traffic is backed up on the other side and you cannot get all the way through the intersection. Wait until traffic ahead clears, so you do not block the intersection.”

Don’t see your state? Visit “www.state.state.us” (e.g., “www.state.ca.us”) and see what you can dig up, or send me email and I’ll add it.

Blocked intersections are a huge problem in Boston. Is it bad in other Massachusetts cities too? How about in cities in other states? Add a comment and let me know.

You get home from work. You park your car on your street. You get out of the car and notice that you could have pulled forward a few more feet. What do you do?

1. “I never check whether I parked properly.”
2. Go in the house and have dinner.
3. Get back in the car and pull up.

If you answered (c), give yourself a gold star.

On-street parking is a scarce resource, especially in a city like Boston. If you leave a few feet of wasted space at one end of your car, there’s a good chance that you’ve ruined a space at the other end.

On a related note, if you’re looking to park and you come upon a long stretch of empty curb (a miracle!), parking exactly in the middle is the wrong answer. Put your car at one end or the other of the empty space, making it likely that more people will be able to park in the remaining space.

All this is obvious, you say? I’m afraid not, judging from what I’ve seen in the eight years I’ve been living in a house with on-street parking.