The Standard Examiner last Friday had an article regarding the traffic school changes from our past City Council meeting. It gave the quick over view of the changes I mentioned in my blog post from the meeting on January 4th. But what no one has really discussed is the potential controversy this traffic school change brings.
Is changing the law to allow people every two months to return to traffic school really just a money making system to bring more revenue into the city and justify the high costs of our current policy system? Are we essentially allowing people to pay every two months to keep their records clean but really learn nothing from the system?
Personally I had to learn this the hard way. Traffic school wasn't around when I got a ticket. I eventually amounted enough points to grant my a license suspension and had to make a decision. Learn to obey the speed limit or stop driving. I am happy to say I have now gone 5 years with out a moving violation. I paid the price in high fees and going through the process. However I am beginning to feel we may be moving to a "Pay to Play" system. Where no matter what you do wrong, every two months you can pay to clear your record.
Yes this will increase revenue but will this cause a bigger social problem in the future. Drivers who never really learn to obey the law because they know in two months they can pay.
Something to ponder. I welcome your comments.
2 comments:
Are there rules that the officer must offer traffic school to any individual that doesn't have a ticket in the last 2 months? Or is it up to the officer's discretion?
The advantage, says Mr. Shupe, is that people don't have to report the tickets to their insurance company. Is South Ogden doing insurance companies a disservice by not allowing them to understand who they're insuring? By this new law, I could get 6 speeding tickets in South Ogden per year, and my insurance company would never know about it.
I'm not a fan of traffic tickets (who is?) and I was relieved the one time I was pulled over in South Ogden and got sent to traffic school. But I don't know if it's a good idea for our city.
I think it is a good thing to go to traffic school, if you learn something. But moving this to every two months sounds like they are just trying to get people in and out as fast as they can and collect the cash.
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