Have to do traffic school

Varies. I work in an East Coast flight department. Moving equipment up and down the East coast is a regular thing for me. Helicotper dolly, power carts, golf carts, tools, aircraft jacks, etc. It really depends on the week's mission. Typically FL to PA, then to NY. 1250-1350 miles each way, 19 hours, one or two fuel stops depending on which F150 I'm driving. Yes, the 2018, 2.7L Ecoboost can go 660 miles on a tank with sufficient reserve to do the trip in one fuel stop in the middle in North Carolina.

During Covid 10K per month. Now it's less.

I'm trying to wind down my career and get ready to retire. So, I'm dong less, thank goodness.
I hope you get a mileage reimbursement!
 
I got a speeding ticket on a State highway out in the desert a few years ago. The CHP clocked me at 71 in a 55 zone. It's very difficult to keep one's speed down in that area and the CHP knows it and sets up with radar where you don't see them until it's too late.
Now I set my cruise control at 58 MPH when traveling that area and don't worry about getting another $425 ticket.

The deal with traffic school in California is that by the time you pay for traffic school and the slightly reduced fine, it costs almost as much as the original fine. The advantage is that it doesn't appear on your record and cause your insurance rates to go up.

The trick to traffic school is to take one of the approved online courses. Once you have signed up and logged in, open one screen on your browser with the school part and another screen with the test part. Then you can quickly go through the test without spending a few hours on the school part. Unless of course that particular school has a program that does not allow you to scroll through the education part and fast forward to the test.

I had to take an online program offered through the AARP in order to qualify for a senior citizen's discount on my insurance.You had to take the course at the speed that it was streamed and it was an absolutely tedious way to spend about two hours.
 
It's a sham of a system........
Another thing my Dad used to say was, "Things don't just happen, things develop."

Monkey Court processes which alleviate some punishment (reduced fines & insurance) likely exist to make the citizenry feel less resentful. Fees along the way enable them to say the added administration cost doesn't come from the tax base.

A local alcohol controlling authority's Monkey Court flips you double or nothin...and they never lose. That court's job is to reinforce who's in charge

I doubt constitutionality questions exist here. Notice is clearly given and participation isn't forced.
 
I almost went to "traffic School" once when I did a s-l-o-w commute to work on back roads for 17 miles with 12 traffic lights, but get a chance to blast for 4 miles down Interstate 93 South in New Hampshire - and clear the cobwebs and acorns out of the exhaust. Nice entrance ramp - got the Nissan up to about 85mph, clear to the middle lane. Brought her up to about 105. Cookin good. Clear ahead, but sun rising.

All of the sudden seemingly out of nowhere, a State cop in a Dodge Charger swooped in and became my left wingman, and give me dead eye. I am now off the gas, no braking of course, and we are slowing to about 85, then a woman in a Prius passes me in the slow lane! The Trooper backs off and tucks in behind the girl - they both slow way down, I slip in front of both of them - as my Exit 2 is coming up. I take the exit and head to the workplace.

I don't know if he pulled her over, my eyes were straight ahead.
But I got a pass by being passed that day :)
 
I got a ticket around 2009, 52 in a 25. Had my father in law and he was pressuring me to get home

Anyway the officer said do not send this in guilty, plead not guilty, show up in court, and we will be lenient. He said that 2X.

When my day in court came, there was a snowstorm and court was canceled. Can't make it up. :mad:

Then, the day came again 3 weeks later, I was offered 5 miles over, $121 out the door, and they said it would not be on my driving record.

I actually pulled my record 13 months later as the court has 1 year to report these violations. Nothing was on it.

I admit that here in 2023, I may no longer think about that incident. But for at least 4 years, I kept my speed down at all times, really. Being aware of the speed limit. Because the road I was on easily feels like a 45 mph road. then you go to calif and some roads that would be 35 mph out east, are in fact 55 mph. The only way to deal with the above is awareness, imho
 
Don't remember the last time I got a speeding ticket but it was well below a 3 figure fine. If it was REDUCED to $121, what was it originally and for how fast? I can imagine well over a hundred if it was reduced to that, but maybe with inflation I'm way off.
Poor guess. Around 2007 I got caught by a traffic cam in Phoenix doing 63 in a 55 and it was $175. The camera was right after the speed reduced from 65 to 55.
 
I almost went to "traffic School" once when I did a s-l-o-w commute to work on back roads for 17 miles with 12 traffic lights, but get a chance to blast for 4 miles down Interstate 93 South in New Hampshire - and clear the cobwebs and acorns out of the exhaust. Nice entrance ramp - got the Nissan up to about 85mph, clear to the middle lane. Brought her up to about 105. Cookin good. Clear ahead, but sun rising.

All of the sudden seemingly out of nowhere, a State cop in a Dodge Charger swooped in and became my left wingman, and give me dead eye. I am now off the gas, no braking of course, and we are slowing to about 85, then a woman in a Prius passes me in the slow lane! The Trooper backs off and tucks in behind the girl - they both slow way down, I slip in front of both of them - as my Exit 2 is coming up. I take the exit and head to the workplace.

I don't know if he pulled her over, my eyes were straight ahead.
But I got a pass by being passed that day :)
Years ago when my car was newer, I saw some college kid in a Ferrari California, likely with a b-ball scholarship. I followed him onto the highway and he got further and further away. When I glanced down, my speedo was 140 mph. I thought to myself, my car feels really smooth at this speed, but I had better back it the **** down! The thought did cross my mind, why not do another 15 and verify the top speed? Since the speedo runs high, it might show up > 160. But I was too chicken (of the penalty) :ROFLMAO:
 
Long long time ago I used to be what I refer to is a dirt road Deputy (rural county Deputy Sheriff). My threshold for writing tickets was 20 plus over the speed limit. So it was generally 75 and a 55 or over. I could sit out on these highways and write tickets all day if I wanted to. Most of the time I had calls to catch or warrants to serve.
Speeder.jpg
 
I got a speeding ticket on a State highway out in the desert a few years ago. The CHP clocked me at 71 in a 55 zone. It's very difficult to keep one's speed down in that area and the CHP knows it and sets up with radar where you don't see them until it's too late.
Now I set my cruise control at 58 MPH when traveling that area and don't worry about getting another $425 ticket.

The deal with traffic school in California is that by the time you pay for traffic school and the slightly reduced fine, it costs almost as much as the original fine. The advantage is that it doesn't appear on your record and cause your insurance rates to go up.

The trick to traffic school is to take one of the approved online courses. Once you have signed up and logged in, open one screen on your browser with the school part and another screen with the test part. Then you can quickly go through the test without spending a few hours on the school part. Unless of course that particular school has a program that does not allow you to scroll through the education part and fast forward to the test.

I had to take an online program offered through the AARP in order to qualify for a senior citizen's discount on my insurance.You had to take the course at the speed that it was streamed and it was an absolutely tedious way to spend about two hours.

There’s no fine reduction from traffic school. It’s only that the point isn’t reported. My fine reduction was essentially for not contesting the citation.

 
Now that almost all cars have Android Auto, I have Waze set as my default app even if I know where I'm going. It alerts me to speed traps, red light cameras, speed cameras and other revenue enhancing traps.

It also will warns of traffic and accidents so I can reroute and avoid.
 
I got a speeding ticket (11 over, but he knocked down to 7) outside of Browning MT in a rental Mustang GT just like in my sig. The officer said I could pay $20 now or go to court if I wanted. Being an early Sunday morning and I was on vacation, I paid the fee and received the receipt...though I'm sure he saw a very puzzled look on my face. I was thinking this was some sort of preliminary fee and I would get the main ticket in the mail later. Nope. Nothing on my insurance, either. I use a Uniden R7 now for my road trips.
 
I got a speeding ticket (11 over, but he knocked down to 7) outside of Browning MT in a rental Mustang GT just like in my sig. The officer said I could pay $20 now or go to court if I wanted. Being an early Sunday morning and I was on vacation, I paid the fee and received the receipt...though I'm sure he saw a very puzzled look on my face. I was thinking this was some sort of preliminary fee and I would get the main ticket in the mail later. Nope. Nothing on my insurance, either. I use a Uniden R7 now for my road trips.

I've heard of states like that. Maybe Nevada had an option to just pay $5 on the spot and no reporting that would get to any insurance company. Might have been a while ago.
 
I don’t get reimbursed for anything and 100% of my travel expenses come out of my pocket. JetBlue, fuel, tolls, hotels etc. They are no longer deductible. $50K + each year.

salary is appropriate for those expenses.
How about Fed tax deduction for work related travel?
Maybe that only works these days for Realtors and Travelling Salesmen.
 
Last edited:
How about Fed tax deduction for work related travel?
Maybe that only works these days for Realtors and Traveling Salesmen.
You must be self employed (I am not) or a member of a select few groups to be able to deduct real business expenses. Put another way, a typical employee that spends a lot of money for business travel, such as airline tickets and hotels and 1350 miles of gas/tolls, and is not reimbursed by the employer, can no longer deduct any of those expenses.

I consider the traffic ticket as the price of doing business. Even when on the job. As the vast majority of tickets are really not that expensive.

Some may remember that I damaged a rental car recently by driving over a curb in the median I did not see due to terrible weather, late at night. The credit card's insurance did cover quite a bit of the cost. My employer seems (so far) to be refusing to cover the balance. That is my line in the sand. I won't work another minute for them if I am required to pay.
 
You must be self employed (I am not) or a member of a select few groups to be able to deduct real business expenses. Put another way, a typical employee that spends a lot of money for business travel, such as airline tickets and hotels and 1350 miles of gas/tolls, and is not reimbursed by the employer, can no longer deduct any of those expenses.

I consider the traffic ticket as the price of doing business. Even when on the job. As the vast majority of tickets are really not that expensive.

Some may remember that I damaged a rental car recently by driving over a curb in the median I did not see due to terrible weather, late at night. The credit card's insurance did cover quite a bit of the cost. My employer seems (so far) to be refusing to cover the balance. That is my line in the sand. I won't work another minute for them if I am required to pay.
No, just recall seeing this deduction available in the past.

I Just read this bulletin (IR-2021-251, December 17, 2021) from the IRS website:

It is important to note that under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, taxpayers cannot claim a miscellaneous itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee travel expenses. Taxpayers also cannot claim a deduction for moving expenses, unless they are members of the Armed Forces on active duty moving under orders to a permanent change of station.

This Act is sunsetting in 2026. Possibly the un-reimbursed employee travel deduction will be re-codified then

- Ken
 
Got a speeding ticket last year. I put off paying for it and frankly couldn't read the officer’s handwriting, where I wasn’t sure what the reporting date/time was. But the citation number was preprinted and I could look that up with the traffic court and found it was 4 months into the future. So I waited until the day before the last day to get it handled. That county’s court has a reduction program where one can plead no contest remotely and a judge can reduce the fine. It was reduced to $121, and I could request traffic school to avoid a point on my driving record for an $82 administrative fee. I wasn’t sure how long I had to pay, but I checked the citation number and the only option was to pay $203, so a judge must have approved it.

This is only the second moving citation I’ve ever had and the first that I wasn’t going to contest. But now I have to go through with traffic school. I looked up what the cheapest option was. One online traffic school charges $19.95, but with enough digging, they’ve got $6.95 and even $5 coupon specials. Seemed a little bit too good to be true, but they’re listed (by website name) with the California DMV as a licensed traffic school and they have excellent reviews. So I’m probably going to do that. Not sure how it’s going to work. I hear that one can do it at one’s own pace and often they allow as many attempts to pass as needed. Probably beats going to a physical traffic school.
Did you think about contacting the ticket clinic? I hear vinwiki mention it constantly. Not sure of if it's too late to use their services.
 
So I signed up and finished it in maybe 3 total hours although I did it in several steps. Cost me $5. Checked my credit card transactions and it was charged immediately after signing up. I then needed to add my case number, (citation number was adequate but case number was recommended) although it was supposedly optional to enter this info immediately as well as my contact info, DL#, etc. It was 7 sections with 8 questions after each section. Then a 25 question quiz at the end to pass. I got 100% for every single question, but 70% of any test was enough to pass. The section quizzes were unlimited chances, but the final quiz was 2 chances to pass. Failure after two chances was a free retake, but that would have meant going through all the material and 7 sectional quizzes all over again. Most of this stuff was common sense, but some of it was specific numbers like recommended stopping distance and visibility.

Not sure how long it's going to take, but they legally have to transmit the electronic certificate within 3 business days, and I've got about a month before it's due. They have a lot of add ons (like a guaranteed same-day transmittal) that I think I can still pay for if I really want to, but at this point I don't think it really matters. I just need to verify that the court got it. The upgrade options are all more than $5.
 
Back
Top