Another thing that's a little different about living in the boonies is that buses are the primary mode of school kid transport. So, with the new school year comes the return of the Yellow Sea of school buses. Frustratingly, there aren't really centralized bus stops in the country. Instead, each driveway that has a kid is a stop. Go 10 feet, stop. Go another 20 feet, stop. It's very easy to have a 15 minute trip home double in no time (or 30 minutes if you want to be technical).
This particular new school year also brings us much higher fines for speeding in a school zone. Last year, zipping through a school zone got you a ticket for $177, regardless of how zippy you were. (No, I don't know this from personal experience. I got my speeding ticket on the freeway, thankyouverymuch, well out of the way of any children. Did you know that Washington State Troopers look a lot more like Smoky the Bear and a lot less like Eric Estrada? I didn't either. Now I know to look for grey instead of beige outfits. The radar gun should have been a tip-off, too, I suppose.)
Back to the new fines...
As of this past Tuesday, the speeding fines are incremental. So, if you are going up to 10mph over the school zone limit, you now get fined $210. For 16-20mph over, it's a steep $353. If you are a total idiot and are caught going 36 mph or more over the kid-friendly limit, you deservedly get smacked with a whopping $784 fine. 56 in a 20 zone? With little kids around? Yeah, that deserves to hurt and increase your insurance rates.
It was a small article on the front page of yesterday's paper yet everyone at the gym today seemed to know about it. Poor Cynthia Bridge reportedly got one of the first $210 tickets for going 29mph in a 20mph school zone. Why is that newsworthy? Cynthia was driving a school bus.
Guess she got tired of waiting, too.
2 comments:
OK that was just too funny.
Thank you for the update on the tickets, I was not aware! Of course, i never speed, but just in case.....Chequeta
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