LittleMouse. Sorry for the confusion. I’m not making any claims about what my Euro-fine might have been, if such a traffic fine system were ever implemented in the USA. All I’m saying is that I’d rather pay $75 than $475.
Barky: I think a $75 fine would have been an appropriate enough of a stin in the wallet, just enough to teach me a lesson, without making it necessary for me to scrimp and save over the course of the next 6 months. I have a fixed disposable income. I had to stop visiting local restaurants and cooked at home instead. I cancelled my yard service and mowed the lawn myself. I cancelled my cable tv and internet and watched tv over the air with an antenna, and used the local library for the internet. This all took $475 out of the local businesses, and can’t have been a good thing, at least from their point of view. I did get punished though. I had to eat my own cooking!
“LittleMouse. Sorry for the confusion. I’m not making any claims about what my Euro-fine might have been, if such a traffic fine system were ever implemented in the USA. All I’m saying is that I’d rather pay $75 than $475.”
All I’m saying is be careful what you wish for. You may get the European system with a $400 floor.
I wasn’t confused. You said what you thought you’d probably get. $75. And given your description of your financial situation, while I still think the fine you got was excessive, I’m not overly sorry for you. No restaurants, mowing your own lawn? The horror!
Yeah auto fines are way too much expensive but much more so in California. When I went to visit my wife in California I got a ticket for “an improper stop”. what I never got to say in court was that the reason I pulled ahead of the yellow stop line was because the CHP officer was blocking the intersection. and motioned me to go on. Needless to say since I was from out of state I had to pay 250.00 or go to jail. LOL ten minutes after I was released a CHP officer gave a repair order for not having proper tags on my auto (This time I went to the nearest CHP office where an embarrased officer tried to tell me that the officer probably didn’t notice I was from out of state. I left the state the next day.
@GeorgeSanJose: Now that you mentioned it, I’ve seen a lot of people picking up trash, washing police cars, mowing the grass in front of city hall wearing only orange vests and not the standard orange jumpsuits or black and white stripped jumpsuits indicating they’re inmates at the local jail reducing their jailtime by doing community service. They’re probably what you said, people avoiding jail time and doing community service on their days off from work because they can’t afford to pay their traffic fines. Never thought of that.