The Roadway


1.   Driving by able, mentally competent adults on state-owned roadways is a right predicated only upon agreement to a roadway contract.   Any such able, competent adult can obtain, at no cost, a license to drive on state-owned roadways by entering this contract.   The terms of this contract are enumerated generally in this section.   Granting of this license is predicated solely upon a demonstrated ability to drive a vehicle in accord with the laws of the roadway and the dictates of safety, and with signatory agreement to the terms of the contract.   The law cannot predicate driving on state-owned roadways on vehicle registration, subject to that vehicle's homologated or special-cased certification of roadworthiness (roster of envelopes and RATI equipment, detailed below).

2.   Sections of roadway with banks not with the same owner, and any section of a road between sections with banks not with the same owner, or between sections which are state-owned, or administered as though state-owned, must be administered as though they are state-owned (all legal provisions applicable to state-owned roads are likewise applicable to roads operated as though they are state-owned), and in particular, the right of access to public vehicular and pedestrian traffic cannot be infringed.   A privately owned road whose banks have the same private owner, whose property extends at least 200 feet in either direction beyond the edge of the road, and which connects via intersections to roadways administered as though state-owned (i.e., two or more directions can be chosen at the endpoints without retracing the private road), are exempt from the requirement that they be administered as though state-owned.   The owner of a roadway can disclaim liability for damage, accident, and injury resulting from poor upkeep of the roadway through display of a conspicious sign to that effect.

3.   All multi-lane or limited-access roadways must be equipped with a remote alert system (RAS) that electronically provides to drivers reports on road conditions, congestion, and accidents.   any tampering with this system or deliberate misreporting of any of the roadway attributes reported on by this system, is unlawful.   All such roadways must also be rated for maximum and minimum safe speed as a function of road conditions and congestion, and must electronically provide this information to drivers.   This system serves as the first input to the determination of the maximum legal and safe speed for a particular segment of roadway, conditions, driver, and vehicle.   All the attributes and parameters covered by this paragraph are to be determined exclusively on the basis of sound engineering practice.

4.   A driver can hold a license which certifies that his skill level and physical fitness is sufficient for higher safe driving speeds. the level of the driver serves as the second input to the determination of legal and safe driving speed.   The level of such a license can be reduced only if the driver is the cause of an accident, or his skill level or physical fitness is reduced.

5.   Homologated vehicles are blanket-rated for performance envelope, environmentally noxious emissions envelope, and safety envelope, and the state must conduct brief (less than an hour) tests in which these three envelopes are determined for a non-homologated vehicle, for a fee not to exceed one day's average wages.   These envelopes serve as the third and final input to the determination of legal and safe speed.   Sufficiently poor showings for any of the three envelopes can cause the vehicle to be declared unfit for use on state-owned roadways.

6.   The Remote Alert Transceiver/Interface (RATI)
    a.   For operation on state-owned roadways, a vehicle must be
    equipped with a RATI whose functionality is described (in part)
    below.
    b.   Each vehicle is required to have a unique identifier.   this
    identifier must include the identity of the manufacturer, and it is
    the legal responsibility of each manufacturer to assure that it
    never turns out two vehicles with the same identifier.
    c.   The RATI must provide, upon request from a law enforcement
    officer or automated law enforcement system, a cryptographic hash of
    the identity of the driver, and a similar hash of the identity of
    the vehicle.   this hash function must provide a consistent 1000:1
    collision ratio with a random or pseudorandom collision
    distribution.
    c.   The RATI must furthermore provide the unhash'd identity of
    the driver and vehicle upon the non-automated (immediate
    by an actual human) request of a law enforcement officer
    (whose identity must be revealed in the request).
    d.   If a RATI-equipped vehicle is involved in an impact, and the RATI
    is still operable, the RATI must immediately begin periodic alert
    broadcasts of its location and the identity of the vehicle and
    driver.   the identity portion of these broadcasts must be encrypted
    such that the information they bear is available only to emergency
    and law enforcement officers.   after one minute, the RATI can permit
    halting of broadcasts.
    e.   When it is on a RAS-equipped roadway, any such vehicle must
    furthermore broadcast periodic updates of its speed, location, and
    performance envelope, sufficient for the receiver of these
    broadcasts to continuously localize the vehicle to a particular lane
    or lane-change, and a segment of roadway 100 feet long.   The vehicle
    should not identify itself or the driver in such updates.
    f.   The RATI must receive and display the roadway attributes provided to
    it by the roadway alert system.
    g.   The information recorded and reported to the driver and vehicle
    owner by the RATI cannot be restricted by law.
    h.   The RAS protocol is to be specifically delineated and mandated
    by law.   the frequencies used by the RAS are to be allocated by
    law.

7.   No aspect of a vehicle's design other than the RATI can be regulated or restricted except as described in paragraph 5.

8.   An individual can lose the right to drive on public roadways only if he has been found, through the trial process, to be at fault in an accident.

9.   A slower-moving vehicle must, when the roadway attribute system alerts it to an approaching faster-moving vehicle, speed up to an equivalent speed (if legal and mechanically possible) or move into a slower lane (if it is safe to do so).



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This is a preliminary draft. Pending changes are in The To-Do List