Where I recount my true experience with a red light ticket and the San Mateo Country traffic court system…
The Infraction
About a month ago I received in the mail a notice of a red light violation. The notice included four photographs: one of me from the front, one of my license plate and two from the back showing the traffic light (already in Red) and my car about to enter the intersection and then half way across the intersection. The pictures contain timing information highly relevant to the case. The first picture:
- Location: El Camino Real and Glenwood Ave., Menlo Park, CA
- Date: Friday, 13th March 2009
- Speed Limit: 35MPH
- Lane: 2
- Vehicle Speed: 36MPH
- Elapsed time: 0.00
The next picture shows my car half way into the intersection, and the data shows:
- RED: 0.86
- Elapsed Time: 0.75
The notice does not explain any of this, but we can interpret it as follows: when the light went red I had not entered the intersection yet. This is clearly shown in picture 1. The second picture shows that 0.75 seconds after the light went red I’m crossing the intersection. The notice is hard to read and it’s not clear what you should do next. With some work you can find a line telling you that this is just the photographic evidence and that you’ll receive a citation from the court. There’s also a link to a site with a video of the incident. The video is fun, but tiny and it’s hard to see exactly when the light goes red and when I start crossing the intersection.
I did not even remember missing a red light, but it obviously happened. I would never run a red light on purpose, so I was mildly annoyed. Time to wait for the citation from the court, pay the fine online and be done with this sad episode…
Whoa!!! How much was that?!
The citation did show up in the mail, a few weeks later. Again, a rather confusing piece of paper that needed some parsing. It took me a while to find out the fine to be paid. They don’t call it a fine, they call it BAIL, in ALL CAPS, like much of the content. The bail amount: $436! To that, you need to add a $57 non refundable administration fee for the privilege of doing traffic school. The total is close to five hundred dollars, for a split second infraction. We’re not talking here about a red light with cars crossing the intersection and you close your eyes and plunge ahead recklessly. This was just a split second decision, with the car already at 35 MPH, where you need to decide to slam on the brakes or keep going hoping the yellow is long enough… That split second mistake costs close to $500 dollars. Amazing, and rather unfair, I thought.
I know these photo enforced intersections need to be clearly labeled as such. In this case there’s a sign half a block before the intersection with a picture of traffic light and the words “photo enforced”. I wished it had said something more like
WARNING: minimum red light fine: $500!
That would have caught my attention much more than the friendly traffic light icon and would have constituted fairer warning, in my opinion. Remember #4, crunchy frog? Warning: lark’s vomit!!!
So, what were the options then? Fighting the ticket seemed pointless as the evidence clearly shows I run the red light. But still, it felt wrong to me to pay this outrageous amount just like that. The citation certainly is eager to get me to pay the amount and be done: you can tear the bottom section and send payment or “you may pay your citation online at www.sanmateocourt.org”. Another option mentioned in the citation is to go to court. I decided to at least go to court and see if I could get some sort of discount on the fine…
Going to court
The process is pretty simple: you go to the traffic section of the Superior Court Southern Branch of San Mateo County, in downtown Redwood City. You need to be there on Monday from 12:30 to 1:30PM or Tuesday through Thursday from 7:30 to 8:30AM. The office opens at 7:30 and there’s a small line outside before the doors open. You line up, get to the counter and ask to see the Judge. I first asked whether there was any point in seeing the Judge at all since my infraction is automated and well documented. The lady behind the counter said that I could certainly get a discount if I saw the Judge. I signed up. The court opens at 8:30 and the Judge will see people in the order in which they signed up in the previous hour.
I had time to prepare a short speech where I was planning to tell the Judge how I would never run a red light on purpose, that I’m a law abiding citizen and that I would like some sort of leniency from the court. I repeated the little speech in my head a bunch of times to get ready, hoping I would not be too nervous when the time came to deliver it. In the end there was no need for the speech at all.
At around 8:40AM the doors to the Court opened and we all filed in. They called the first 10 people or so to the front row and the Judge entered. He gave a short speech explaining how things were going to work. He was going to call each person one by one forward. He would then ask for a plea of “inocent” or “guilty” (“no contest” being a special case of “guilty”). If you plead “guilty” you would automatically get a discount and very possibly be eligible for traffic school. If you plead “inocent” a trial date would be set up for a time within the next few months. You needed to be aware that you could loose your trial and then there would be no discount. He also mentioned that people could get payment extensions or even work out a payment installment plan with the court (there was an extra fee to set up the installment plan).
So, I filed away my speech. When my time came the Judge asked if I was me, then asked me if I was there for a red light violation and whether I was willing to take a discount and traffic school. When I replied that I would, he asked when I could pay my fine. I said that I could pay right then and there and he sent me to window 7 to pay the fine. That was all. The discount was one hundred dollars.
I paid the fine with my credit card and left the courthouse. It’s interesting that the immediate payment options do not offer a discount at all and also that I could not find any information anywhere about the process and what to expect. Hence this post.
Traffic School, but which one?
The final step in this oddyssey is doing traffic school. But which one? The court gives you a handout with the list of online traffic schools you can attend, about 80 of them with urls like: easyfastcheap.com, happytrafficschool.com, cheapeasyfast.com, goodbyeticket.com, etc. I do not want to choose one at random and have not found a site with user reviews yet. I’ll figure this out in the next couple of weeks and document it here.
Tags: Menlo Park, red light, San Mateo County, traffic violation
Thank you for the information. I was wondering what happened after a red light camera ticket.
Ditto on the thank you above, I did the exact same thing you did at Glenwood Ave ran the stop light in the same situation late at night no other cars–just received the bail amount in the mail and almost had a heart attack. After reading your blog post I will def–go to court this is my 1st violation in over 15 years…ugh. Thanks again.
L
Thanks for the info. I just recvd a $446 red light ticket as well and almost threw up. I was in San Mateo on biz from my home state of NC. Naturally, I can’t return solely to see the judge so I just have to pay the fine and make this our family Xmas gift to me! Needless to say, this leaves a very sour taste in my mouth after my expensive trip to Cali. I have to say I will not travel back there again for biz or pleasure because of this outrageous fine, along with all the other taxes and fees around San Fran.
I am continually amazed at how easy people just get in line like sheep without any sense of outrage when it comes to these things. People going thru red lights is dangerous and wrong. HOWEVER, cities that see these these situations as revenue generators instead of a safety issue are equally at fault. The number of seconds in the timing of the yellow light signal is purposely dialed down to the minimum stopping distance as set by Caltrans. WHY? Because if they moved up to say 5 seconds instead of 3 seconds, 99% of us could, and would, stop in time. BUT then they wouldn’t get the REVENUE. So instead, knowledgeable sheep WILL SLAM ON THE BRAKES AT THE FIRST SIGN OF YELLOW TO AVOID THE $500+ “fine”. And rear-end accidents will result. Another great benefit of government looking out for us…
I remember seeing that the minimum delay had to be 4 seconds and I checked the video of my “incident” to verify that the yellow light was on for at least that amount of time… and it was. So, I don’t think this is an instance of trying to force people to fall into the trap. Still, the outrageous fine amount results in the knee-jerk reaction you’re describing. I certainly slam on the breaks whenever I see yellow on those intersections.
How nice that it was 4 seconds at your intersection. It’s 3 and change (like 3.1, 3.2, 3.4) at the ones in San Mateo. The minimums have been purposely lowered since the mid-80s, just as red-light cameras began rolling out. Under the 1976 traffic engineering guidelines the big intersections in San Mateo would have to have 5 seconds of yellow. For a turn of any kind, the minimum is 3 seconds, regardless of intersection size, speed limit, or grade slope. The low yellow times create a dilemma zone for motorists where you’re not sure whether to stop or keep going. Ironically, motorists willing to accelerate into a yellow have a better chance of beating the camera than those of us who follow the safer practice of coasting through intersections with the brake covered. I’ve been driving since 1976, and driving in California without any violations or accidents since 1989 – until I was nabbed recently by one of the SM cameras. Although like you I plead guilty and did the same traffic school, I was outraged to discover the shortened yellow times, which I’d had a vague feeling weren’t as long as I remembered from decades ago. Thanks for the review of the school, by the way – it helped me pick from the long list given to me by the court.