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The court’s position is obvious–it just takes too long to count this much change. The student argued that the coins are actual legal currency and it will cost money to convert this change to bills and that he shouldn’t have to incur that extra expense on top of the fine.

Courts all have their own rules about the types of payment accepted. Some will accept personal checks, some credit card…just about all accept cash. If they can start rejecting this type of cash payment, what comes next? Will the court accept four singles and four quarters for a five dollar payment? Three singles and eight quarters? What about 100 singles for a $100 payment? What about one single dirty, wet $100 bill pulled from some guy’s sock?

Rules are rules. This court accepts cash? They should have counted the guy’s bucket of change. The court would then be free to “change” their policy going forward.

Florida saw two fatal accidents this past weekend involving older drivers. In Delray, an 89 year old driver killed a woman in a Walmart parking lot and in Deerfield Beach and 88 year old driver killed a woman by dragging her under her car across a church lawn.

Florida has a lot of senior drivers and recent statistics show that about 15 percent of all fatal crashes in Florida involve drivers age 65 and over.

The license renewal rules were recently revamped in Texas, the change driven in part by an accident involving a teenager killed by a 90 year old driver in Dallas.

Forcing a senior driver to renew a license in person will require the driver to navigate the DMV and retake an eye exam. Only one state, Illinois, actually requires a new road test for drivers of a certain age. However, there’s no real solid proof at this point that increased scrutiny over license renewals do much good to help the situation.

As the number of older drivers on the road increases, the search continues for an effective screening method.

The first part of the equation involves fuel efficiency. While the figures change with the price of gas, some estimate that at or near current prices a driver would pay close to 28 cents more per gallon for every 5 mph over 60 mph he or she drives on average.

As an example, take a car that gets 20 miles per gallon on average when driven at a near optimal 60 miles per hour and is about to take a 180 mile trip. At 20 miles per gallon, expect 9 gallons of gas to be consumed.

Now the same situation at 65 miles per hour. This means another 28 cents for each of the 9 gallons of gas or $2.52 total extra expense in gas. On this particular trip, the extra five miles per hour in average speed over a three hour trip means a savings of about 14 minutes of time in total travel.

Thus, for every hour of driving time you save over the course of time by driving a little faster a driver will spend around $10.80 extra in gas. Drive 15,000 miles in a year at just five miles per hour faster and approximately 20 total hours of time are saved that year at a total cost of over $200.

The faster you drive, the greater the extra expense.

All this is just fuel economy. A much greater potential expense that comes with faster driving is a speeding ticket. While there have been many estimates concerning the average cost of a single speeding ticket, there really many factors at play. How far over the limit, what state, which court, driving history, insurance company, etc. can all come into play.

In New York City for example, the highest speed limit is 50 miles per hour. If a driver with an otherwise perfect record is convicted of driving 71 miles per hour in a 50 zone, it will cost a minimum of $495 in fines and surcharges to the DMV. If insurance goes up by a mere $10 per month for a three year period, add another $360. It’s costly to say the least.

Moral of the story here is that most cars come equipped with a cruise control. Set it and it may take you a little longer to get where you are going but on average you will get there safer and cheaper.

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.