Ticketing Trifecta
July 1, 2012
June was not a good month for us, cars and getting in trouble via our cars.
Generally, I only talk about me and peripherally PiC here because we haven’t really ironed out the ground rules about what’s ok to share here. But this is one of those best (worst) two out of three sorts of things where we were together for most of them so I think it falls under the “us” category.
1. Out of towner: The car was reparked on the wrong side of the street for less than five minutes so that we could, separately, pay the hotel bill and walk the dog right before loading up and leaving the city after a weekend trip. Parking ticket: $50.
2. Taking the usual route: Busted going around 50 in a 34 MPH zone. What is a 34 MPH zone? Speeding ticket: $XX + Traffic School.**
3. Counter-intuitive Parking Structures: Forgot to pay for parking which you pay once you’ve parked and gotten into the station, right before you go running to get on public transit. Gah. It’s so easy to forget because it requires me to turn the opposite direction I’m going in to find the pay station for the parking booth. It’s even worse when you don’t use the station frequently. $6.50 for him to go back to pay the parking fee but the train was so delayed that it was a futile effort and had to give up. Somehow, didn’t get ticketed.
**I don’t really recall the stories or rules of how traffic school works precisely, whether you pay a whopping couple of hundred dollars and a full soul-sapping day for the school to avoid a point against your license or whether it’s down to a few hours and a lot more money. But at least traffic school is an option against a fat fee, a point against the record and a long-term insurance hike.
While I have some sympathy for #1 and #3, there really isn’t much excuse for #2. Going too fast is dangerous not only for you but also for other people, whereas parking… well, it’s an inconvenience at most.
Just to be clear: I did file all three under stupid.
You may be able to do traffic school online. My husband got busted by a red light camera on a visit to my parents in AZ, and for a ridiculous amount of money (just slightly less than just paying the ticket) he got the privilege of spending several evenings clicking through an online traffic school course.
That would be helpful. Either way I assume it will cost. *SMH*
Ouch! The last ticket I got was for staying over my paid-for-time because of a business meeting that ran over. Silly me, I should have just got up and left, but I risked it and lost. £30 is roughly $50 – and of course it wasn’t a ‘business’ expense I could reclaim. V. annoying. (Just back after a month in France and getting caught up on reading!)