Speeding tickets

By Chang Se-moon

Since most readers of my column in this newspaper are Americans who work in Korea, Korean-Americans, Koreans who have visited the U.S., Koreans who are interested in visiting the U.S., Korean students who are interested in American life, and Americans who live in the U.S., I will talk about speeding tickets in the U.S.

Speeding tickets can be quite costly. Consider Providence, Rhode Island. Providence had a population of 179,219 in 2016, although the Providence metropolitan area which includes Providence, Fall River, Massachusetts, and Warwick has a population of over 1.6 million. I am aware that many students from Korea attend universities there.

WPRI-TV in Providence reported that 12,193 tickets at $95 per ticket were issued in Providence from five speed cameras between Jan. 16 and Feb. 22. It is barely over a month. Tickets are issued for vehicles traveling more than 11 mph above the speed limit between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Total charge for the 38 days of speed violations turned out to be $1,158,335, or about $6.46 per city resident. As of Feb. 22, the city received only $370,000. The Providence City Council voted to allow up to 15 cameras to be installed in the city in 2017, with six more in 2018.

How about California where many Koreans live and visit? The fines for speeding tickets in California can be very expensive, because the state and county penalties and assessments are added to the base fine.

First of all, there is a state surcharge of 20 percent on all traffic citations. Then, there are assessments: court operations assessment, conviction assessment, state penalty assessment, night court assessment, county penalty assessment, DNA identification fund penalty assessment, state court construction penalty assessment, Emergency Medical Air Transportation Services fund penalty assessment, and emergency medical services fund penalty assessment.

As to fines, the base fine for 1 to 15 miles over speed limit is $35, but the total fine after adding all surcharges and assessments balloons to $234. The base fine of 16 to 25 miles over speed limit is $70, which balloons to $360 after adding surcharges and assessments. The base fine of more than 25 miles over speed limit is $100, which balloons to $480 after adding surcharges and assessments. Base fines in construction zones are higher.

How about New York where many Koreans also live and visit? Fines for speed violations in the state of New York vary with where you are. For a first conviction, the cost of a New York speeding ticket can range between $45 and $600.

According to Google, if you are speeding less than 10 miles over the limit and unlucky enough to get a ticket, your ticket will usually be between $45 and $150. "If you are speeding between 11 and 30 miles over the limit, your ticket will be in the $90 to $300 range."

What about Washington, D.C., which is another popular place for Koreans and visitors from Korea?

Nick Iannelli of WTOP.com reports March 9, 2017, that the Washington, D.C., issued 1,101,769 photo-enforced tickets, which included speed, red-light and stop-sign camera tickets during the 2016 fiscal year, with the "bulk of those tickets" being speed camera tickets.

During the year, the total number of traffic citations, which included tickets issued by officers was 2,760,482 with their value totaling no less than $300 million. "Among all those tickets handed out, more than 700,000 went unpaid, causing the District to miss out on more than $125 million in fines."

Since Washington, D.C., has a total area of only 68.34 square miles (177 square km), of which 61.05 square miles (158.1 square km) is land and 7.29 square miles (18.9 square km) is water, I have no doubt that the majority of speed fines are borne by drivers who live outside the jurisdiction. Economically speaking, traffic tickets in Washington, D.C., are a very profitable business with much of the revenue coming from non-residents.

One place that you need not worry about speeding tickets in Washington, D.C., is I-495, the beltway of Washington, D.C., especially near the merging or splitting lanes of I-495 and I-270 on the north side of I-495. Posted speed limit is irrelevant, because it is so congested almost all day long that it seems faster if you walked.

Can you receive a speeding ticket on your parked car? I know what you are thinking, but you are wrong. The answer is yes.

Speeding tickets are issued increasingly on the basis of pictures taken by cameras installed on top of traffic signals. On April 9, WWL-TV in New Orleans reported that "Five days after WWL-TV reported on Mr. Schulz who was battling speeding tickets he received erroneously for his parked car, he said he has received two more ― one that should have gone to a speeding police vehicle."

Early in April this year, "a speeding police officer is seen triggering the traffic camera on Canal Boulevard, which is on the other side of the street where Donald Schulz parks his car."

Chang Se-moon (changsemoon@yahoo.com) is the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies.