How I helped PennDOT while others won't

WE ALL know Pennsylvania roads and bridges are among the worst in the industrialized world.

We know clogged traffic around our cities wastes time, fuel and pollutes the air.

We know highways are crammed with too many trucks.

We know many of the state's nearly 5,000 "structurally deficient" bridges face weight limits, which will add to the slowdowns, jam-ups and general disarray.

I want you to know it's not my fault.

In fact, I want you know I've done more than my share and paid more than my dues to help PennDOT over the years.

I'd even argue I've done more than our Legislature, which refuses to act on transportation woes, and more than our governor, who can't get our Legislature to act.

How and why have I done more?

Through sheer stupidity.

Read on; you'll like this. You'll like it because everybody likes it when a know-it-all columnist admits to idiocy (and save the cracks about how in my case that's not really new information).

See, it turns out I've been overpaying my driver's license fee - for decades.

Why?

Way back in the late 1960s, I had a motorcycle; although by any reasonable standard it was more of a laughable putt-about.

It was a Honda 50 cc, which, for the uninformed, packs the power and menace of a Toro mulching mower and, as I recall, cost about as much.

Anywho, I rode this hog to and from summer jobs and to and from Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland.

The college jaunts were adventurous since the wake of whizzing-by tractor-trailers on interstates presented challenges in balance and, occasionally, survival.

Still, I loved the motorcycle even though friends referred to it only as a moped, scooter or, in a bit of classic collegiate humor, my "fauxtercycle."

It died in 1969 somewhere in the Catoctin Mountains not far from the college where I'd often ride (rather than study) to look for entrances to Camp David - because even then I was interested in politics.

Fast-forward to this year.

As plans to better fund transportation were offered, I wrote about proposed increases in registration and license fees. One would raise current basic license fees from $29.50 every four years to $50.50 every six years.

After writing this, I realized I just paid my renewal fee and it was $49.50.

Can you see this coming?

I didn't. So I printed a copy of my canceled check, trekked off to a PennDOT, um, "service" center, took a number, waited with other lost souls then explained my overpayment issue to a nice woman behind window No. 17.

She asked to see my license. Then with a deep nasal intake and long sigh signifying sheer disdain for my level of cognition, she said, "You have a Class M license in addition to your Class C license."

Translation: I was still paying for a motorcycle license, at $20 per renewal.

I assured her I no longer own, drive or want a motorcycle, said it wasn't much of one anyway and that it was long gone, as in 44 years.

My mention of possible refunds for past decades brought an eye roll; although I did fill out a form, mailed it in and six weeks later got $20 back.

In olden days if you had a regular (Class C) driver's license there was no extra charge for a motorcycle (Class M) license; that changed in 1984 when a Class M fee was added; it was increased in 2002.

I tell you all this for two reasons: as a cautionary tale to other former bikers who pay no attention to the price of license fees (please let there be some); and to prove I've done more for PennDOT than our elected officials, even if unwittingly.