At what point are traffic violations just a way for a city to make money?
I drove to Cow Hollow earlier today to get a haircut at Descend Salon from my buddy, Marco. I parked at a meter and saw the parking enforcement dude eyeing my car. As I counted my change and went to the meter, he was still looking my way. I struck up a conversation with him.
"How's it going?"
[He points to the car in front of mine.] "I'm ticketing that car for not turning in their wheels"
"Wow, thanks so much"
I then get back into my car and turn my wheels in.
I'm really good about this stuff, but I was definitely not parked on any sort of grade that I felt warranted turning in my wheels. But I guess it doesn't matter how steep the hill is, turning your wheels in is always a good idea. I started talking to a couple store owners who were standing outside their shop. Apparently the city has been super strict about this recently, and this guy was going around ticketing a lot of people.
So why is the city so aggressive about giving out these tickets? Is it a serious danger? Or is the city trying to make a little extra money?
I was just reading in Car and Driver about how speed cameras are going up all over Arizona. But it was clear that they were going up purely to make more money, not for safety concerns.
- They added speed cameras to balance the budget. As their budget deficit increased, so did the camera ticket program to match.
- These tickets don't add points on your record. They just want the money. This means more people just pay it and don't bother fighting.
- These are civil offenses, not criminal. So they only have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you were speeding. This means more people just pay it and don't bother fighting.
Instead of balancing the budget, Arizona just ticketed more people in a way that was unfair, but for most people not worth fighting. In future years, you think they balanced the budget and removed the cameras? Of course not. Each year will just get worse, and more cameras will be added.
As an avid driver, obviously I'm very anti speed cameras. But at least if they were being put up under the premise of safety, I'd just groan and live with them. Oh well. At least my radar detector will stop me from getting ticketed by the cameras.
Also forgot to mention that since I moved back to SF, I've been pulled over TWO times for my front tinted windows. Luckily no ticket. But it's odd since I've always had front tinted windows (how can you have a black car without tinting! For 10 years no problem, and now boom. Something is definitely up.
