traffic school -- worth the effort?

[frorider]

got a ticket in SLT for rolling thru a stop sign at 0.00001 mph.

always had a clean driving record & my insurance rates are low. if i don't bother w/ traffic school, will just one minor incident like this affect the rate?

[stevenspass4life]

are you younger then 25?

[Hugh Conway]

effort? traffic school?

[Blatant]

was it photo or a cop that generated the ticket?


From my experience (assuming school will forgive the ticket, which is why i would think you're asking) loosing the 8hrs of your life in school is better than paying for that ticket time and time over in possible premium adjustments b/c of insurance companies handling you.

Now, if you're a fck up driver and get tickets constantly, then I would think it's moot.

[Hugh Conway]

was it photo or a cop that generated the ticket?


From my experience (assuming school will forgive the ticket, which is why i would think you're asking) loosing the 8hrs of your life in school is better than paying for that ticket time and time over in possible premium adjustments b/c of insurance companies handling you.

Now, if you're a fck up driver and get tickets constantly, then I would think it's moot.

in california it's more like an hour of your time, hence the effort sarchasm

[LittleWoodsie]

in california it's more like an hour of your time, hence the effort sarchasm

What, the whole hour? I bet that has had a major impact on the safety of the roads!

[Blatant]

wish it were an hr here...


does that hr actually get rid of the points etc?

[iceman]

I heard somewhere you can do Cali traffic school online. Not sure if it's true but worth checking out...

Can't believe they gave you a ticket for that, here that's called the "California rolling stop".

[hutash]

In California it is an 8 hour class, but they figure by time you get breaks and such it is actually 6 hours of class time equivalents. Yes you can do on line traffic school in under an hour (the last one took me 45 minutes.)

I don't know how in works in Utard, but here a point increases your insurance significantly regardless of age. It is best to do the class.

[DJSapp]

8 hours? Going to an actual classroom?

Google California Online Traffic Schools for god's sake. It takes an hour and costs <$30. It's cheap insurance against the next one, and yes your insurance will fuck you to death over a ticket.

[skier666]

It took me a Sunday morning to do mine online.

I think it was best traffic school or something like that. There's millions.

[davep]

I took an online California traffic school for $16.99. I copied/pasted all the 'lecture' section in to a big word document, then searched for keywords while taking the 'test'. Never actually read the 'lecture', but I'm sure it made me a much better driver It took about 20 minutes.

[frorider]

i'd heard that the online courses were cheap and easy in CA...that's not the issue here really.

the court charges 210 for the ticket plus another 64 bucks to 'let' you go to traffic school...then there's the handling fee for paying the fine on-line. So just under $300.

plus the traffic school fee, but that's not too much.

my question was more oriented toward gauging when the points actually impact your insurance rates. i.e. if you have one extremely minor infraction per decade, it's harder to imagine insurance rates going up. as i wrote in my original post, i have a clean record.

anyone who knows this junction knows that since the right-hand turn enters a merging lane, the intelligent way to mark the beginning of that merging lane would be a 'yield' sign not a stop sign. The stop sign ensures that cars are merging at a very slow speed into hiway 50 traffic, which ensures brake tapping from other drivers and increased risk of accidents. If they had a Yield sign, traffic flow at that junction would be smoother and safer for all concerned. Most drivers intuitively know that coming to a complete stop at that stop sign makes no sense, so many drivers rolls that stop. So for the cops its an easy way to get $$ for the county..just sit there eating donuts and within a minute you'll see someone roll that stop sign.

I can't complain too much -- most of SLT traffic signs are reasonably placed and spec'd -- this is really the only idiotic one.

/blog

[DJSapp]

Frorider, it's not this infraction that will bite you in the ass, it's the next one. Or if you go on a string of them. It is best to get traffic school under the belt and get the reset clock ticking so if/when you get hit again, you can repeat the class. Traffic school resets after 18 months (?), but minor infractions stay on the record for 7 years.

IMO $80 is well worth the insurance on your insurance, and odds are you can get the ticket reduced by going to TS.

[G]

Which intersection?

[DJSapp]

If I had to guess from his brief description, the Y

[shaggy433]

blah... Traffic school resets after 18 months (?), but minor infractions stay on the record for 7 years.

.

7 years? fuck that pretty harsh. Here its 2 years on the police record and 3 years on the insurance record.

But the points will jack your rate up so if the TS is cheap why not just go and prevent your ins from going up?

[tortoisesman]

DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT THE NAME OF THAT SCHOOL IS? i HAVE TO CHOOSE ONE SOON IN cALIFORNIA.

[powdork]

If they had a Yield sign, traffic flow at that junction would be smoother and safer for all concerned. Most drivers intuitively know that coming to a complete stop at that stop sign makes no sense, so many drivers rolls that stop. So for the cops its an easy way to get $$ for the county..just sit there eating donuts and within a minute you'll see someone roll that stop sign.

for god sakes i would hope they would at least be eating something good from el papa gayo. and most drivers intuitively know that there is a cop just down the road, waiting for you not to stop. hell, isn't the highway patrol station within view, not to mention the guy (or 2) waiting at the bug station?

and do you really have to pay the entire ticket plus the traffic school? i always thought it was one or the other.

[Rooster]

Can't believe they gave you a ticket for that, here that's called the "California rolling stop".

Round here it usually ends up a DUI.

[AdironRider]

Taking traffic school was the best decision ever made. I got caught doing 100+ and was able to plead down the judge to traffic school on account of being a stupid 16 year old. In the eyes of my insurance company I had a perfect record, and got to keep my license.