I see a lot of out of state lisense plates and also a few from Canada from time to time, assuming that these people are not California residents driving with out of state and foreign plates then what happens if they get a traffic ticket? Especially the folks from Canada, could they just go back to Canada and forget about the traffic ticket or would it somehow get on their record? What’s the deal?
and
What if I get a traffic ticket in Canada or even Mexico could I just forget about it when I came back to the States?
relationships set up for enforceing such things. It may be that certain provinces do and others don’t (just as I think some states do and others don’t).
A relative of mine who is a retired police officer told me that states and provinces don’t extradite for traffice tickets, so, an out-of-state violator could just go home and ignore it. without repercussion
However, if this same person returns to the state, even many years later, and is stopped for any reason at all, the police officer will run the license number, find out that the person has an outstanding warrant, and will in all probability arrest him on the spot. It is not unknown for such an arrest to be the “at gunpoint, spread-eagle on the ground kind” of arrest.
What’s the statute of limitations on Speeding Tickets?
I received a speeding ticket in Chicago about 3 years ago. I’ve never paid it or heard anything about it since.
makes a note not to get pulled over in Illinois again, ever
In Ontario we have our first toll highway and have agreements with several nearby states to enforce payment from American’s and out-of-province Canadians.
Also, in highschool I remember a teacher telling us of a trip to Florida in which he got pulled over for speeding. The officer made him pay on the spot with a credit card before he could leave!
<tin foil hat=on>
And let us not forget the possibilities that a local judge might just escalate that out-of-country ticket to a bench warrant and have the details entered into that big brother database the federal government is pushing …
One can see a Canadian being stopped at the US-Canadian border crossing next summer on their way to the States with the kids for a family vacation only to be arrested on the spot …
<tin foil hat=off>
What about the reverse case: a Floridian gets a ticket in Canada, doesn’t pay it, and years later returns to Canada?
There is a statute of limitations on bench warrants (that’s what’s issued for you in California if you don’t show up to court for your ticket). The statute of limitations likely varies from state to state.
The problem you would run into is that your bench warrant will likely remain in the system until you do something about it. Such as complaining about it after you’ve already been arrested.
Just out of curiosity here, what do they do to discourage speeding and such? If there was no way to enforce the rules, somewhat at least, I’m sure there would be more abuse on both sides of the border. I’m not talking about about doing 120 mph or anything, but if someone knows they don’t have to pay, they’'ll drive at 90 until they get caught, no?
But you really just get one free pass on the tickets. You can run away from one, but then you have to wait several years before returning to that state before that warrant is expunged.
And there are still some jurisdictions in the U.S. where you go straight to court after getting a ticket. No waiting to come back later. You take care of it on the spot, but that’s fairly rare now.
There may well be a statue of limitations on tickets and warrants, I have never let one age long enough to find out. 
I can tell you this, tickets are like savings bonds, the longer you keep one the more it is worth. Also many states do have reciprocal agreements, so that if you have a warrant in one state you could get nailed for it in another.