Traffic School

I just successfully completed my online traffic school course. It's awfully convenient that you are able to do this online now instead of attending class in-person. However, considering that it still took me over 2 hours to complete the course and take the test (and cost $110), it's not like I actually spent less time (or money) than if I was to appear in person.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I only scored 80% on a 10 question open book test :) But I stand behind the two answers that I gave that were marked incorrect. The first question that I got wrong had to do with the circumstance under which you should use extra caution around a motorcycle. In addition to, "In bad weather" and "On slippery surfaces", I answered "At night". Apparently the online traffic school did not agree that you should pay (special) attention to motorcycles at night. Of course, as someone that rides a motorcycle, I believe that you should pay special attention to them at ALL times.

The second question that I got wrong had to do with the appropriate behaviour when approaching a schoolbus with flashing yellow lights from the opposite direction on a non-divided road. I knew that the answer, "Slow down and use caution" was the appropriate answer listed in the course material. However, as I scanned the other options, I saw this: "Yield right of way to any children getting on the bus and then proceed". Hmm, under what circumstances would not yield the right of way to children getting on to the bus. True, the bus should have red lights flashing if it was stopped and children were getting on. But regardless of the color of the flashing lights, if there are children present, call me crazy, but I think that it's prudent to yield the right of way to them. Once again, the online traffic school did not agree with me.

So, why was I enrolled in an online traffic school? Could I really think of no better way to spend a snowy Sunday afternoon? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was coming home for lunch and got nailed doing 43 in a 25. I openly admit to regularly speeding, and to be honest, given the frequency with which I speed and am not ticketed, I probably deserved this ticket. However, I take particular issue with the location in which it was cited.

The main road leading up to my house is about a mile long. Although there are only officially two lanes of traffic, the road is wide enough for there to be 5 lanes of traffic. On the entire stretch of road there is only a single house with a driveway that faces the road. There is a school but it is fenced off (and there were no children present at the time that I was ticketed). Similar roads, elsewhere in Spanish Fork have speed of 40MPH or greater. However, this one stretch of road has a speed limit of 25. It's kind of ridiculous because nobody drives that slow on that road.

I thought about fighting the ticket and arguing that the road should have a higher speed limit. But even if I convinced someone of that fact, it wouldn't change that I exceeded the speed limit while it was still posted at it's old speed. Or in other words, there's no real way of arguing that what I did was legal and shouldn't have been ticketed. Oh well. I'm still thinking of writing a letter to the city encouraging them to reconsider.