Archive for July, 2011
Los Angeles Carmageddon Not As Bad As Expected Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
“Carmageddon” is the name Los Angeles residents are gave to what they figured would be a traffic jam for the ages due to a construction closure of a very busy 10-mile stretch of the 405 Freeway from Friday night to Monday.
As a bridge was demolished as part of a $1 billion freeway-widening project, motorists expect hours of delays and ripple effects on about a dozen other highways.
Celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Erik Estrada were recruited to help spread the message. For one weekend at least, please stay off the roadways in question if at all possible.
The weekend has come and gone. Everyone has had a chance to reflect and most are coming to the same conclusion–this was an incredibly successful operation. Nothing close to the dire predictions came to fruition.
Streets and freeways were generally clear. California Department of Transportation statistics show significantly fewer cars on some freeways and significantly less traffic in general, even in areas far from the 405.
Now some mass-transportation advocates are using this as an example to show that with some eduction, cooperation and small sacrifices we can really reduce the number of vehicles on the road, number of accidents, hours lost to traffic, vehicular emissions, etc.
Others argue that it’s one thing to ask people to make a small sacrifice in one are over one short, finite time period. It’s a whole other thing to get people to make the kind of permanent sacrifices necessary to drive less and carpool/use public transportation more.
Illinois Seat Belt Violations–New Law Friday, July 15th, 2011
Starting Jan. 1, 2012, there will be a change in the existing Illinois seat belt law.
Currently, only adult drivers and front seat passengers are required to drive with their seat belt on.
Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation last month which will make it mandatory for all Illinois drivers and passengers to wear seat belts beginning next year.
With children already required to be buckled into the back seats, the law now means that every individual in a moving vehicle in Illinois will be required to wear some kind of restraining device.
Fines will start at $25, the same as they are now for seat belt violations.
The law makes Illinois the 15th state to make wearing a seat belt mandatory for everyone in a vehicle, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit that says it advocates for highway safety.
Dan Aykroyd Gets Speeding Warning On Way To Honda Toronto Indy Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Actor Dan Aykroyd was pulled over this weekend by an officer who threatened to issue a speeding ticket. Ultimately, he was merely given a warning and he pulled away without a ticket. There’s not much of a story here outside of the irony:
Mr. Aykroyd was on his way to the Honda Toronto Indy to serve as Grand Marshal.
“I was racing to the race,” he was quoted by media as saying on Sunday, much to the amusement of the tens of thousands of high speed car racing fans. “You know when you see these races, you want to get into your vehicles and drive home and you do it trying to imitate the driver. That won’t be me this afternoon.”
Note this wasn’t necessarily a case of preferential celebrity treatment. Issuing a speeding ticket is up to the discretion of the officer on patrol. Warnings may be given if a speed isn’t too high, there are no outstanding issues on the individual’s license, the driver is contrite and polite, etc.
NY Speeding Ticket Email Hoax Friday, July 8th, 2011
If you get an email which seems to be from the New York State Police and has the subject line “Uniform Traffic Ticket”, don’t open the attached zip file. The email did not originate from the State Police or other agency and the zip file most likely contains a computer virus and is definitely not a speeding ticket.
Even if you know this is not a speeding ticket, please don’t open the attachment out of curiosity or any other reason.
Here’s what the email looks like:
From: Police agency
Subject: UNIFORM TRAFFIC TICKET
Attachment: Ticket.zip – 12k
New York State – Department of Motor Vehicles
UNIFORM TRAFFIC TICKET
POLICE AGENCY
NEW YORK STATE POLICE
Local Police Code
THE PERSON DESCRIBED ABOVE IS CHARGED AS FOLLOWS
Time 7:25am
Date of Offense 07/02/2011
IN VIOLATION OF NYS V AND T LAW
TO PLEAD, PRINT OUT THE ENCLOSED TICKET AND SEND IT TO TOWN COURT, CHATAM HALL., PO BOX 117
South Carolina To Examine Automated Camera Summonses Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
As part of a law banning speed cameras and speeding tickets based on photographic evidence, a Traffic Enforcement Commission in South Carolina soon will be appointed to examine the ethical, legal and policy issues traffic cameras create.
The commission will consist of representatives from state government, law enforcement and the S.C. Bar and Criminal Defense Lawyers associations. The law calls for the commission to start meeting “as soon as practicable” and commission members will participate without compensation.
The commission is to consider more than 20 questions related to the use of traffic cameras. Questions include the constitutionality of mailing speeding tickets to alleged violators, whether the state can handle the increase in citations and fairly adjudicate them and whether the Department of Public Safety should be the only agency authorized to use the cameras.
The panel must report its findings to the legislature by Nov. 1 and will hopefully provide lawmakers with answers critical for determining the future of automated camera enforcement in South Carolina.
New California Driving School Law Friday, July 1st, 2011
Under the current California regulations, a driver can attend traffic school multiple times as a means to erase a traffic violation from the driving record. Attend traffic school and the charge will show on one’s record as “dismissed”.
Now, the new law AB 2499 changes this in a substantial way. A dismissal via traffic school attendance will be available to drivers only once every 18 months. Attend traffic school for a second or third or fourth time within the 18 month period and the driving record will now show a conviction, not a dismissed traffic citation.
The primary purpose behind the law is to let judges who are adjudicating a traffic ticket have better insight and more information concerning the quality of the defendant’s driving record. Before the law, the system in place was allowing persistent violators to have tickets dismissed without the courts knowing that they were indeed persistent violators.
Courts will now know, for example, if you are attending court in Los Angeles just a few weeks after you had a violation in San Diego County dismissed by attending traffic school.
Essentially, the days of beating the system by attending traffic school multiple times within an 18 month period are over. “This new law creates serious consequences for repeat offenders,” DMV Director George Valverde said in a statement.
