Page 12, Whiby Free Press, Wednesday, Septemnber 20, 1995 Driving coss ag ain g o up by JII Mclntosh It starts with the name Itts oue of the firet. rules of marketing that 'it's almost impossible ta market a product, ne matter how good it is, if it doesnt have a good name. That hoids true for cars. For the most part, the names eut on the road taday are doing a gond job of selling the metal they)re attached ta. 0f course, I still wonder about such strange ones as the Volkswagen Golf, the Chrysler Breeze and the Ford Probe, which sounds like it should be driven by a proctoogist. Over the years, names have changed considerably. The earliest cars were expeaïsve novelties and there wam no noed for aggressive advertising campin.Most were named after their inventors: Ford, Chry8ler, Chevrolet, Buick, Dodge. A notable exception was the Hudson, named after one of the company's financera. Inventor Howard E. Coffin put aside bis ego and decided not to name the new automobile after himself. Other companies didn't think that far ahead, and taward the start of the Firat World War, buyers could choose cars with such unusual names as the Charter Oak, Hay Berg, Everybody's, Herschell-Spillman (made Lu Tonawanda, N.Y.) or my favourite, the Britiah-built Alldays & Oniens. Over the years there have been all sorts of names that wouldn't startd a chance Lu today's marketplace. There was the American Underslung, very popuflar in 1911 - the name refera ta the fr-ame being slung under the axIes, making it lower than the spidery carniage-types of the day. The Hudson- Pacemaker predated the heart variety. Jaguars began life as S.S. Jaguars (the~y were a model name from S.S. Cars Ltd. cf Coventry) but the name was pared down Lu 1945 because of the infarny of Hitler's SS troope. A car that -would be politicaily corrected today was the LaFemme, a model introduced by Dodge in the 1950s. Marketed toward women, it came in pastel colours accompanied by a matching raincoat, hat and umbrella. It was dropped due te poor sales. A lot of companies working toward global sales have found that names can work against them wheu tralated juta other languiages. Who in North America would buy a Lettuoe? The small cars are sold only in Japan, and strangely enough, corne in every colour but green. MazdLL'B Miata, wheu sold at home, cornes with the name Enos. In the 1960s3, Chevrolet found that sales of the Nova were almost non-eistent Lu Meico. It turned out that in Spamish, nova translates ta "ne go." Many names that were dropped over the years - -arp bein resurrected today, and Nova is back on the street, along with Monte Carie, Impala and Roadmaster (not for much longer, unfortunately), Shelby and Crown Victoria. Perhaps the saddest name is one that the Ford Motor Company will probably neyer live down. Henry Ford's oldest son was a remarkable businessman, well- iiked and well-respected, and after bis premature death, company officials decided ta honour him by naming their newest and most hopeful automotive venture after him. The world has long forgotten such strange names as the Doddsmobile, Charles Town- About, Little* Princesa and' Menominee, but the car named after Edsel Ford will be with us forever. A typical Canada motarist will pay $7,714.75 in 1995 ta own and operate a vebicle, according to the Canadian Automobile Assocation (CAA). FQr a motorist driving 24,000 kilometres per year, that coit equals 32.1 cents per ilometre. Minivan owners can expect to pay $8,203.60, or 34.2 cents per Ilometre. CAA's 1995-1996 Driuing Coata pamphlet summarizes the costa of owming and operating valous types of vehicles acros Canada. The biggest increases this year are in depreciation, partly the result cf higher purchase prices, and fuel costs, largely a result of a 1.5-cent per-litre increase in the federal excise tax on gasoline (plus oeT. The ligures were developed by Runzheimer Canada, a management consulting firm speialzinin measuring the coots DI VIN%À, SAFELY Jj with RANDY; RANDY McLEAN IS A PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER WHO SPECIALIZES IN TRAFFIC SAFETY. Mr. McLean has reviewed thousands of individual motor vehicle accident reports and his close working relationships with police agencies, goverrnments, safety associations, industry and the public, have given hlm a true overview of traffic safety issues, problemns and solutions in Canada. Lefs share the iormat'on Attention Premier Harris and everbd'sp, AI Palladini, Ministr ofrnwsportaton. f your government is interested in an opportunity ta increase efilciency and cost-effectiveness eliminate duplicationamong different; levels o1 goverument, build paterghips and improve traff iesafety, read on. Egch vear i Ontario more than 1,OOOpeople are killJdand 120.,00ixured in traffic accidents. rpet damage is aot$ billion and the cosa of meccal care and police enforoemnent are increasing faster than otzr tax base. To develop coat-effectivehighway -safety improvementa and establish priorities, traRc engineers and planners must fret be- able ta correctly identify what.and where the problemas are. To assièt in this effort, police officers record a wealth of critical information (weather conditionsi, road conditions, light conditions direction of travel, driver acton, sequence a events, etc.) for each reportable accidient. The onlygood thing about having 200,000 reportable accidenta each year lms that it doesn't take long to bumld good database for analysis. Urfortunately, there ia a serious flaw in how this database is used, or rather, not used. Years of research went inta developing the standard motor vehicle accident report formn now used by Of transportation, fleet management and business travel. Costa were determined using a 1995 Chevrolet Cavalier 1.8 four- door sedlan with a 2.2-litre, four- cylinder engine (in a medium-cst province), driven 24,000 ilometres each year and kept for four years. "Driving cosas rose by 4.2 per cent this year, whereas the SEE PAGE 13 ail police forces in Ontario. in addition te documentation for insurance daims and legal action, the form was specifically designed ta collect information neoessary for traffic engineers and planners ta identify safety problems. Police offioers are trained ta accurately collect this information and they spend valuable time interviewing drivers, passengers and witnesses ta ensure the information ls correct and complete. After ail that paperwork ls complete, a copy of the form is sent to the Ministry of Transportation where the information is entered inta a computer file. This information is used by provincial officiaIs ta develop policies (e.g. seat belt legisiation) and identiiSr problem areas on proincal, ighwa Bu the fiaw is that city traffic engineers and planners do flot have accesa ta these computer records. If municipa officiais want ta analyze accidenta on city streets, they have ta keep their own records. This can be fexpanive. Some cities keep only partial records fo8ti reason. OnI y a few citiesl1know of use computers moat stili keeptheir records manýly whichmaes anisediicuit, time-consuzmng and more expansive. There ia something inherently wrong about rnanualiy analyzing computer stared data.hI any event, there is a duplication of efforts by at least two levels efigoverniment. The same information the provincial government entera. inta a computer file, is aise recorded manuslly or in a separate comuter fie blocal city staff. egnesand pianners. Tryingta imprve traffic ~e=èreout accident data ialaotlie trying ta run a business without any financial records. Without reliable data, answering even very basic questions such as What are the 10* highest. accidents locations and how many accidents occurred at each location last year,' is a time consuming if not impossible task. Providingct officiais access ta provincial motovebcalccident data does net require a royal commi ssion, a billion-dollar investinent or massive reorganization, jut a littie intergovernmental coprtion.ritish Columa and Saskatchewan bathhve developed computer Mtems toalalow city officiais acceas ta their data. 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