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Police Officer Chris Collins left a handwritten note on the windshield of Evagelina Paredes’s car while it was parked outside her apartment. The note made an offer of dinner and he explained that it was “the least he can do” considering the money the ticket would cost.

Ms. Paredes has filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Chicago. The suit accuses Police Officer Collins of violating her privacy.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the note left by the 27-year-old police officer.

“It’s Chris…that ugly bald Stickney cop who gave you that ticket….I know this may seem crazy and you’re probably right, but truth is I have not stopped thinking about you since. I don’t expect a girl as attractive as you t… even go for a guy like me, but I’m taking a shot anyways.”

“I did cost you $132 — least I can do is buy you dinner,” the note reportedly read.

It may be heartfelt and sincere, Actual traffic enforcement enforcement and real world penalties are different from “Bridesmaids”–very funny movie with a sub plot that included a romance started with a traffic stop.

Perhaps the biggest differences between the movie and the real life incident is that the officer in the movie let her go with a warning and randomly met her again instead of writing the ticket and then stalking her.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski’s teen driving legislation would require a parent-teen orientation, as well as 50 practice hours, including 10 nighttime hours, to be completed during the GDL learning phase. These two new provisions are born from multiple studies which shows that parental involvement is key in ensuring safer teen drivers.

New Jersey AAA is supporting passage of the legislation. Recently, AAA released two national studies that found there is a steep learning curve when it comes to learning to drive. One study found teens were 50 percent more likely to crash in the first month of driving than they are after a full year of experience.

MIT Professor Jonathan How and three of his colleagues announced they’ve created an algorithm that can predict whether an oncoming car is about to run a red light. The algorithm they’ve created can compute the likelihood of a vehicle entering an intersection after the light has turned red based on its rate of deceleration as it is approaching the stopping point.

The team applied the algorithm to more than 15,000 vehicles during the study, using instruments that monitored the speed and location of a vehicle when the lights turned red. When it was time to review their results they found that they were able to correctly predict who would run a red light 85 percent of the time.

Their successful predictions in many cases were made with a level of precision down to mere milliseconds. Prediction of collision can come one to two seconds prior to the collision itself.

Perhaps the technology can be used one day to prevent many red light related accidents before they happen.

The anti-drunk driving group MADD will call today for every state to follow New York’s lead and implement a version of the law which automatically makes it a felony to drive drunk with a child in the car.

Today MADD officials will be unveiling in Washington DC a report on drunk driving laws. New York’s Leandra’s Law will be part of that report.

“We consider it the gold standard of child endangerment laws,” MADD National President Jan Withers said.

Leandra’s Law was enacted in 2009 and named for 11 year old Leandra Rosado, who was killed in a drunken driving accident on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan.

The law also mandates the installation of an ignition interlock device (essentially a Breathalyzer) on the car of anyone convicted of a misdemeanor or felony DWI.

According to MADD, more than 1,400 people have been arrested in New York on Leandra’s Law offenses since it’s been in place.

Only three others states – Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma – have similar laws.

In addition to today’s report in DC, MADD offices in each state will be pressing local officials to adopt their own versions of Leandra’s Law.

The cameras would monitor traffic near schools and send $$00 tickets to drivers going more than 5 mph over the limit.

Chicago’s Mayor Emanuel says it will save lives.

Similar to most red light camera tickets, a violation for a speeding ticket issued under this law would not be considered a moving violation. The ticket attaches to the plate and registered owner like a typical parking ticket. This has to do with the difficulty of identifying the individual driver when the incident is recorded by camera.

New enforcement techniques and ideas. Using technology to issue more summonses and collect fine revenue or using technology to discourage speeding and protect children. Maybe a little of each?

Between 2008 and 2010 alone the number of drivers identified as aggressive increased 88 percent.

Are people in a much bigger hurry today than 10 years ago? Are officers choosing to classify a wider range of driving as “aggressive” and looking to issue more summonses in tougher economic times? Perhaps a combination of both is at work here.

In Florida, a driver is considered aggressive when he or she commits two or more specific violations at the same time. The infractions are speeding, tailgating, running red lights or stop signs, improperly changing lanes, improperly passing and failing to yield the right of way.

Drivers committing those infractions get tagged as aggressive drivers and could receive more points on their driving records.

While aggressive driving knows no particular driver age or vehicle type boundaries, a typical example might involve someone who is late to work driving too fast (speeding) and passing slower vehicles either unsafely or without signaling (improperly changing lanes).

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found in a 2009 report that 56 percent of deadly crashes involved driving behavior associated with aggressive driving.

Drivers continue to drive more and more aggressively despite the fact that they realize the danger. In annual surveys by the AAA Foundation drivers site aggressive driving as a serious problem and rank it up there with distracted driving and impaired driving as real threats to their safety.

The Child Passenger Safety Week Campaign will run from Sept. 18 to 24, 2011 and crack down on Missouri’s child safety seat law violators. The goal is to reduce fatalities and injuries to children. Extra enforcement officers will be on the local streets and highways looking for violations of all types, but especially focusing on those involving unbuckled children.

Child restraint law in Missouri requires all children under the age of eight to be in an appropriate child safety seat or booster seat unless they are 80 pounds or 4 feet 9 inches tall.

The Kansas City Police Department is one of the agencies who will be participating in the child safety push. “Regular child safety seat and safety belt use is the most effective way to protect yourself and your children in a motor vehicle crash,” Sgt. Grant Ruark of the Traffic Enforcement Unit said. “We intend to get this message across to those who do not practice the simple habit of buckling up themselves and their children.”

Opponents of the red-light cameras claim they did not make intersections more safe, were an invasion of privacy and that this is the beginning of a nationwide trend to abandon the devices.

Supporters claim that these cameras do indeed save lives and that more than 500 municipalities, including Washington DC and New York, are still successfully employing camera programs.

Houston residents voted nine months ago to end the camera enforcement program. After months of legal challenges to this vote, the Houston City Council voted to end the program, even though cancellation could cost the city as much as $25 million.

Several on the council who voted to end the program still maintain that they support the cameras but indicated the importance of respecting “the will of the people.”

Los Angeles saw it’s camera program come to an end after the City Council voted on July 31 7-5 to allow their contract to expire without renewal.

LAPD claims these cameras did increase safety, citing a 62% decrease in red-light traffic collisions. However, it’s worth noting that opponents have always questioned the safety related “evidence” in support of red light cameras. For example, does this 62% number take into account the number of rear end accidents caused by people slamming on their brakes in fear of a camera summons or the number of accidents caused by people cutting corners or traveling residential roadways to avoid major camera enforced intersections?

The main issue in LA was that the program was ineffective because fines were not always collected. One Councilman cited the courts failure to use the tools at their disposal to hold people responsible and force them to pay their fines. Instead, too many fines went uncollected and what would have been a profitable venture became a losing one.

Houston and Los Angeles have spoken but this isn’t the last we’ll hear of this issue around the country.

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.