There have been a number of interesting observations from readers over the past few weeks — from brake lights on electric vehicles to spooking horses on the side of the road. There’s never a shortage of thoughtful and often witty insights showing up in my inbox.

David wonders why the province did away with vehicle inspections given the number of defects he’s seen on other cars during his travels. My own pet peeve is being “gassed” out by an oil-burning car chugging along in front, a vehicle that could never pass an emission standards test.

David worries more about the bald tires, cracked windshields and defective signal or brake lights he sees regularly out there.

A few things happened many years ago to sink the inspection program. It was a question of economics. Inspection facilities were expensive propositions with lots of staff and infrastructure to maintain. There was also a fairness question as city dwellers were subject to tighter rules and annual inspection fees, things which were not imposed on their rural counterparts.

Second, the quality of vehicle manufacturing has improved exponentially. Robotic efficiency, with the ability to build vehicles to a micrometre level of correctness, means simply........

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