Aggressively != illegally. Especially if we’re talking red light running.
“Bail” does not equal “fine.” You pay the bail and then choose your course of action from amongst those offered. If you attend traffic school and send in the appropriate proof then your bail will be refunded. If you contest the ticket and are judged not guilty, the bail will be refunded. If you contest and are convicted, your bail will be refunded to you minus any fines or penalties. I’m not clear on the first option, not contesting and paying the ticket, why you’d have to send the full bail amount in, but I would have to guess they would refund it to you minus the fine. Why you can’t just send the fine amount is mystifying. I’d suggest contacting the clerk of the court for clarification.
Information on bail found here. May vary by jurisdiction, IANAL, taking legal advice off the internet is stupid, etc.
I’d be happy if the traffic signals were associated with a row of “severe tire damage” spikes that pops up on the near side of the crosswalk when the light changes to red.
</only partly kidding>
This is true if the camera is working properly. Most cameras are operated by a vendor, who either came in at low bid or went through an RFP/SOQ* process. It is possible for them to malfunction. The judge is only going to accept this as a possibility if you’re one of a mass of people contesting that one intersection. You’re the best judge of whether that is possible. The cameras usually flash when they go off. Do you remember a flash?
I can’t guess what your odds are for getting the fine reduced in court.
*Request for Proposals, Statement of Qualifications - a review and interview process.
The fact that private companies install these things is one reason the fines are so high. Generally, how it happens is, a private red light camera firm approaches a city and says, “Hey, let us install some red light cameras. We’ll do it for free! We’ll even take care of all the maintenance! All you have to do is give us 80% of the proceeds, and you keep the rest for doing nothing. Heck, you can even claim you’re making the streets safer. It’s like printing money!” And the city thinks it’s a great deal and rubber-stamps an OK on it.
So, it ain’t exactly the city’s fault that the citation is as high as it is; that’s the fault of “Scroo-U Traffic Cameras Inc.” The city’s just complicit in the shakedown.
My city recently installed some cameras, for safety purposes, naturally. Of course, when a new law was passed that required that cities turn over 50% of the money generated by camera ticket fines to the state, rather than keeping it for the city, they began to discuss scrapping the program. I guess safety’s not as important when you make less profit.
Yeah, the judge will never expect that. They’re often swayed by hard-luck stories of the guy who had to run a red light in order to get the last can of formula for his starving child.
Good luck with that. 
Rick already spoke my mind; I’ve had a number of near-misses with assholes who think that the 30 seconds they’ll lose by sitting at a stoplight is worth more than the safety of everyone else on the road. Then there are the lovelies who honk at you, flip you off, or throw a coffee cup at you because you had the nerve to slow on a yellow light, preventing them from running right through a red. (I actually had one of these lumpheads pull this while a cop was right behind him. He pulled us both over, demanded stories, and then gave the other bloke a ticket for disturbing the peace and reckless driving and said he was lucky to get off without assault.)
I’d consider myself a fairly aggressive driver, and yet I don’t find it in any way difficult or an inconvenience to use signals, make room for merging traffic, and come to a complete stop at lights and signs. Don’t want to pay $381 again? Don’t run a red light. It’s pretty simple, really.
Stranger
As a proud graduate of defensive driving school, I can tell you that green means make sure it’s OK to go, yellow means stop unless it’d be unsafe, and red means shave/put on lipstick/clean glasses.
Is it illegal to operate a motor vehicle (car) wearing a motorcycle helmet? Mask? Appearance altering make up? Just asking out of curiosity. IRL I think that $400 is about half of what the fine should be, having been nearly T-boned by some dickwad with red/green colorblindness.
Cite?
That’s not the impression I got from reading the info on the ticket posted by the OP.
I think this still may be a good option, even if you have to pay the bail and the school costs (assuming they are reasonable). In the long term, not having points reported to your insurance may save you more money than you would be paying up front.
We have been though this. The cameras take pictures of the light, the front of the car, the back of the car, and the driver. Lots of people in California don’t mount their front plate even though it is required. So the cameras take both front and back so that breaking the law (no front plate) doesn’t result in a get out of jail free on another charge (running a red)
Otto In my experience you forfeit your bail when you take traffic school. So in essence your bail becomes your fine.
I am tempted to post the [nelson]Ha ha![/nelson] laugh, because I got one too a month ago!
I open the letter, and look at the pictures (same amount: almost $400) of my car going through the red light. But then I look at the driver - no way that’s me! Impossible! In fact… in fact… it looks like my wife! Bursting into the house, I use my best Ricky Ricardo voice: Honey, you got some 'splaining to do!
Now to pay the ticket, and sign up for traffic school, my wife and I have to first sign a piece of paper transferring the movie violation to her, and then we can proceed with the rest of the sorry business this ticket will entail.
About the points on the insurance question, in my experience it will affect your insurance, but not by much. One point might make it go up a little, but if you have an otherwise good record it is not a big deal. Here in Michigan there are no traffic schools or whatever you can go to in order to get rid of points, so if you get a ticket you get points no matter what. Most people I know have had points on their insurance at one time or another. I recently got mine cleared (they go away after 2 years, IIRC) and my insurance went down about $50 a year or so. But I am sure it depends on the insurance company and how they calculate such things. Running a light might be worse than speeding regardless of points assigned, and maybe in Michigan they don’t consider points as bad since there is no way of getting rid of them, who knows.
I would call and find out if bail is the same as a fine.
Not that kind of BS at all.
I waltzed into the DA’s office for pre-trial hearing. I pulled out the ticket and pointed out 3 mistakes the issueing officer made. I told the DA he was talking on his cell phone when he drove past me (he was). I said, “Maybe, just maybe, this officer was a little distracted that morning. Distracted enough to make three errors while writting the ticket. Distracted enough that maybe he didn’t see me make a complete stop at the sign from a half-mile away. While on the phone.”
DA dismissed it.
Thats the kind of BS I’m talking about. Hell yes I ran that stop sign. I had to get my starvin’ kid to a soccor game!
As a pedestrian who crosses Sepulveda twice daily en route to work and home, I call bullshit on your “I have to drive aggressively” line, and applaud the citation. You did something illegal and you got caught. Now’s the time to pay up. Get the amount reduced or paid off in installments if you can, but don’t even think about weaseling out of it.
The amount of the fine should not be surprising. The penalties for driving through red lights and improperly using the carpool lane are costly, and have been for years. I don’t even drive and I know this.
While I understand you have the right to contest anything you are accused of, I think this type of reasoning is morally suspect. If you knew you were guilty, regardless if the cop did everything right, you should have owned up to your mistake.
<off soapbox, on bike for commute home>
Yeah, but 400 Australian dollars is like, what, 12 American dollars?
I kid, I kid.
Well, if my son was at death’s door due to lack of nourishment, I would have higher priorities than forcing him to play a physically demanding sport for 90 minutes. What kind of parent are you? :mad:
My (secondhand) experience with tickets suggests that you have an excellent chance of getting the fine reduced, and almost no chance of getting it canceled. So go to traffic court and give it a whirl- if you can show financial hardship, there’s a chance of getting it reduced.
I am alarmed at how many times I read on this board of how people break any number of traffic laws, and think it’s okay.
This is why I don’t drive. It’s just not safe out there.
I got caught recently speeding on an expressway in Japan and had a huge fine to pay. Damn nice picture they took of me.
[soapbox]Running red lights can be quite fatal for yourself or others, so take it as a lesson learned. [/soapbox]