Who gauges the need for Marylands strict car-inspection rules?
Illustration by Mark Todd The comment still disgusts me every time I read it. Tucked neatly into the lower left-hand corner of my yellow carbon copy of the State of Maryland Motor Vehicle Inspection Report is the declaration, “All 4 Tires Stick Out Of Fender Too Far.” The inspector wrote this sentence in a journalistic up-style, I guess, to lend it a New York Times, headlinelike authority. Capitalization notwithstanding, the point was clear: My 1996 Toyota 4Runner had failed inspection. Last year, my wife and I moved to Takoma Park from Texas, where they have different ideas about highway safety. That state, after all, didn’t forbid drivers from drinking until 1987; then it took the legislature another 14 years to ban open containers for passengers. People had warned us that Maryland’s one-time-only vehicle inspection could be cruel compared with Texas’ easygoing annual one. I even had proof. Earlier this year, my wife was reduced to tears when she asked the vehicle gods whether her 19
