Driving Record, Speeding/Other Tickets

[garrick]

In Japan there are certain times in the year where the cops go out on an all out campaign to fulfill their quarterly quotas.
They're often in bizzare places where no one is around like near a railroad crossing way out in the middle of nowhere or at a T Junction where one car may pass through every half hour or so.
I got my first ticket a few years ago at a railroad crossing, I slowed down to a crawl and looked both ways and went through the tracks but got flagged down by some cops who were hidden on the other side and got slapped with a 70 dollar fine.
If they don't reach a certain amount of tickets it is looked as if they're not doing their job. The Japanese police system is quite screwed in the way they operate and there is not much transparency though recently the police are under more scrutiny by the media after a string of scandals in the past decade.

[Miklo]

The state I live in is ridiculously strict when it comes to fines to the point where it's hard not to agree with ppl who just call it "revenue raising" for the government. Just wondering how the system works where you're from.

In Victoria they only allow a 2% differential. So if you're in a 100 km/hr area they will give you a ticket if you're doing more then 102 km/hr. This used to be 10% about 10 years ago. They also adjust the speed limit along the same stretch of road a ridiculous amount of time. If a main road is considered a "school zone" then it's not uncommon for it to go from 80km/hr to 40 km/hr.

We also have *both* speed and red light cameras on some intersections. So if you speed and run a red light you can say a big "ouch!".

Not sure whether every country runs a demerit system but we get 12pts for a rolling 3 year period then you can kiss your license goodbye. Speeding, less than 10 km/hr over is 1 pt. Over 10km/hr is 3pts. Over 25 km/hr you can kiss your license goodbye straight away. Speaking on the phone is 3 pts. So it's impossible to rack up the number of fines some of the others were talking about without losing your license.

Anyway I got my first ticket for ages this year. It had been 3 or 4 years since my last speeding fine but I racked up about 3 in 3 months back then. I always use cruise control on free-ways unless it's peak-hour. If anything ppl have become too cautious here for my liking. Irritates the crap outta me if someones doing 95 km/hr in the right hand lane on a freeway without having the courtesy to move lanes. Considering little things frustrate me while I drive I've got a pretty good record.

It is definitely revenue raising. Especially for some small towns located along major interstates - they will have 6 or 8 cop cars out on their 1 mile stretch of the interstate, that drives their economy. But most places in the States will start to ticket you if you are doing more than 10 mph over the limit. We have the same thing - speed and red light cameras, often times in the same intersection. The other crazy thing is, the county where I got my speed camera ticket uses a company to collect the payments - and this private company gets $16 of the $40 for each ticket. So you are supporting a private company too.

Our system is similar to the "demerit" system you mentioned - in most if not all states here, you have a certain maximum of points before you lose your license. I believe points you do get "wear off" after a couple years.

Ahh yes, I knew the whole sides-of-the-road issue would come up here - because of course here, it's people camping out in the LEFT lane that are irritating

[KJ7]

10 *miles* per hour over the limit? Wow, I wish it was like that here!!! I would never have received a ticket (not joking!).

ha ha ... yeah, escaped me momentarily about the "sides of the road" thing.

Yeah, we have private companies doing their dirty work as well. They used to have the same type of cars parked on the side of the road as speed cameras but when the private companies came along they became craftier.

[DaDragicShow]

I've got a few tickets when I first began driving. After that I haven't really got anything serious since I pay attention to the road more then before.

When I first started driving I was kinda always driving fast and trying to show off. Well one day after bball at a park I was driving back and the road was kind of curvy and I was driving about 40-50mph on a 15mph road. So long story short, my car swerved and I ended up hitting a tree pretty badly. I thought Id died or something but It turns out I was left without any serious injury. By the way, Ginobliflops( on this board) was driving behind me and saw the whole thing.

I gave you the mutumbo finer wave

Where you living now man? We should play ball again sometimes if you're up for it. Message me your number on my email bpom1985@hotmail.com

Bobby

[lilfishi22]

We also have *both* speed and red light cameras on some intersections. So if you speed and run a red light you can say a big "ouch!".

They've only just started installing the speed cameras onto the red light cameras in Sydney and apparently they are going to put in 60 over the next few years. It's going to be damn hard to adjust and I can bet in the first year they start operating, A LOT of people are going to get booked just because they are so used to speeding past the yellow lights to avoid the camera. It's really another way to rout us of our $$$.

[Orange_Blooded]

i got a ticket for an accident when I was 19... that sucked. The worst part was I missed the warped tour I was on my way to. The ticket was taken off my record since I went to driving school but it still resulted in a huge hike in car insurance.

I got 2 photo radar tickets, 1 magically went away when I ignored it.

I got pulled over by a dickish cop who gave me three tickets a couple years ago... The first one was for expired tags (which is why I was driving the car from my dads house trying to fix it so I could pass emissions), the 2nd one was for no proof of insurance (lost the paper, understandable ticket, even though he knew I had insurance), the third one was for not having thrown away my drivers license with an incorrect address on it. I had a new one I tried giving him after mistakenly giving him the old one... but he wouldn't take it. Then he made me tow my car home.