This column isn’t about vehicle and traffic law or even traffic safety. It’s about the 1,000 weekly column I have written over the past 19-plus years.

What began as a one-year commitment to the Franklin County Traffic Safety Board (TSB), of which I was and still am a member, has turned out to be 19 years and counting. This column is number 1,000.

When I agreed to write a weekly column for the Malone Telegram on behalf of the TSB for one year, I was confident I had enough information to write at least 50 columns and, at the end of a year, assess the value of the columns and decide if I should or even could continue.

In the first column, which appeared in January 2007, I stressed the importance of providing factual information about traffic-safety issues. Subsequent columns covered subjects such as snowmobiling laws, cell phone use, how snow and icy roads don’t “cause” crashes, opening a door into traffic, U-turns and passing a stopped school bus. In the past 19 years and 1,000 columns, I have written on just about every topic involving traffic law and safety.

By the time I got several months into this project, people were asking me to write columns on various traffic laws that they might not have understood. Also, traffic safety organizations such as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety were sending me their columns pertaining to traffic safety, with permission to reproduce them with attribution. Finding subjects to write about was not an issue.

In the beginning, my wife, now deceased, was my proofreader, and the State Police Troop B traffic Sgt. Kevin Mulverhill approved the columns before they were published. Since Kevin retired, other Troop B traffic sergeants have previewed and approved the columns. And David Stewart, “Smart Driver” instructor for AARP, now provides editorial Assistance.

Columns now run weekly in the local news media, including the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Tupper Lake Free Press, Malone Telegram and Plattsburgh Press-Republican. They also go to NYS DOT in Albany, Federal Highway Administration, Cornell Local Roads Program and its Local Technical Assistance Program, numerous county traffic safety boards in New York state, several police agencies in Franklin County, including the State Police, plus several SUNY facilities and various others with an interest in traffic safety.

Even the City of Madison, Wisconsin, receives the columns. Several years ago, I was contacted by the city when it was having a problem with motorists turning right on red (RTOR) and not yielding to pedestrians. Madison got my name from reading one of my columns on Facebook, addressing the origin of and the laws pertaining to RTOR. I was even a guest on a radio phone-in talk show in Madison on this subject. Today, two traffic engineers for the city continue to receive the weekly columns.

Writing these columns has been a wonderful experience. It has kept me busy in retirement, while I hope to provide a valuable service to all drivers and pedestrians. It has helped me learn the intricacies of vehicle and traffic laws, the requirements of the National Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and how to drive safely on the wide variety of our roads.

Factual information is important for the driving public. However, one factor that concerns me is the decline in readership of our local newspapers. I’m not sure social media answers that void.