Carol:
Smile! You're on candid camera.
Prescott Valley has photo-enforced speed zones, and of the 5 of us who walk in the morning, 3 have gotten tickets at the same intersection. My first reaction was to consider never driving the car again, neighbor Jim decided never to drive in PV again, but eventually we got around to discussing the more practical merits of (a) ignoring the ticket, (b) fighting the ticket in court, or (c) going to traffic school.
I don’t know what the penalty is for not paying a ticket, but clearly people do ignore tickets without being thrown into jail. A member of my family, who shall remain anonymous, accumulated a bunch of parking violations when he was in law school because he would forget to move the car when the meter was up. The car was registered to my father, who got really mad at me who got really mad at the member of my family who shall remain anonymous.. If I actually chose to ignore the ticket, I would punish myself by spending sleepless nights worrying about when and how I would eventually be punished. Apparently, some people are opting to ignore the tickets because a September 8, 2009 article in The Arizona Republic cited data from the Arizona Department of Public Safety that in the six months since the photo enforcement system was installed percentage of drivers who paid their tickets had dropped from 34% to 24% (source: Hensley).
Fighting the ticket in court is worth more thought. One argument is whether the photo proves who is driving the car. The Arizona Republic illustrates with a Phoenix man who was caught on photo radar numerous times, but it’s hard to identify him because of the monkey mask. In my case, that photo is one of the nicest pictures of me that has ever been taken, and I look so happy as I am chatting with the other people in the car. Another argument is that citations have to be be personally served. Apparently, the State Appeals Court ruled in 1992 that mailing speeding tickets violated Arizona statues, but I guess if you sign the ticket and send it back, you are waiving that right. Even though I could probably get an attorney to represent me for nothing (he still owes me for the embarrassment of those parking tickets 39 years ago), I did exceed the speed limit and deserve my punishment.
My best option was to go to traffic school. I felt great relief when I heard about the online option. I signed up for the course and felt pretty confident that I could complete it in plenty of time to meet the June deadline. My neighbor decided to just complete the class with an instructor, and he did the whole thing last Saturday in four hours. Meanwhile, I have been puttzing around and have only finished the first of six sections online. Every morning I would get up and think, “Today, I am going to finish that traffic school,” but I got sidetracked instead. I probably should have just gone ahead and taken the course in a regular classroom. Too late now.
Soooo, I am going to set aside four hours and focus on the driving class—no mental detours. Can’t do it today, though, maybe tomorrow?
On the other hand, there is that other option….
Source:
Arizona State Appeals Court Photo Radar Decision. The Newspaper.com.
Hensley, J. “Fewer Paying Speed-Camera Tickets in Arizona.” Arizona Republic Sept 8,
2009.
2009.
Megan:
I’m glad this topic came up because I’ve been wanting to share something. This website is not a journal so I had to wait for a semi-relevant topic that I could loosely tie to what I wanted to say.
I decided to become a librarian after I graduated from Mills for two reasons. I wanted to go back to England and I wanted a job that could support writing. I never imagined how interesting and fun working in libraries would be. However, working in the prison, although it provided plenty to journal about, was so mentally exhausting that I never got further than the first draft of anything I wrote.
I’ve been job searching for over a year now, trying to find jobs in academic libraries with the idea that I might eventually enroll in an MFA program. I became distracted by the local opportunities, but so far have been turned down for everything I’ve applied to. I was talking to a good friend of mine about his plans to apply for a graduate fellowship so he can get his PhD. There are some programs, he explained to me, that actually pay you to go to school. Turns out this is true for MFA programs as well.
On Monday, I purchased a prep book and registered to take the GRE in August. Not having to take that test was a perk of attending library school in England and it is not required for all programs. However, a lot of the funding sources require it so I’m just going to take it. I haven’t taken a math class since my junior year of high school, but occasionally I do complicated multiplication and division problems in my journal to exercise my brain, so I’m sure I’ll be fine. Also, I’m going to take a class.
Application deadlines for fall 2012 are this winter, so I will take creative writing classes at the community college this fall to prepare some writing samples for submission. Some of these programs are extremely exclusive, only accepting 4 new students a year but I’m not going to let that intimidate me. The fellowships and assistantships require students to teach an average of one class a semester, in return the tuition is waived and the student receives a stipend, in some cases, enough to live on. Some of these programs also have semester abroad opportunities, a summer in Prague or London just for writing.
That’s pretty much my dream life. I have a realistic understanding of the publishing world, but getting the MFA would give me a structured environment, and professional feedback, and teaching experience that would help me get academic positions in the future. I still want to be a librarian. I am still going to the annual ALA conference this June, and will still apply for jobs as they come up. But applying for MFA programs seems like a good next step, since that’s always been part of my plan.
I decided to become a librarian after I graduated from Mills for two reasons. I wanted to go back to England and I wanted a job that could support writing. I never imagined how interesting and fun working in libraries would be. However, working in the prison, although it provided plenty to journal about, was so mentally exhausting that I never got further than the first draft of anything I wrote.
I’ve been job searching for over a year now, trying to find jobs in academic libraries with the idea that I might eventually enroll in an MFA program. I became distracted by the local opportunities, but so far have been turned down for everything I’ve applied to. I was talking to a good friend of mine about his plans to apply for a graduate fellowship so he can get his PhD. There are some programs, he explained to me, that actually pay you to go to school. Turns out this is true for MFA programs as well.
On Monday, I purchased a prep book and registered to take the GRE in August. Not having to take that test was a perk of attending library school in England and it is not required for all programs. However, a lot of the funding sources require it so I’m just going to take it. I haven’t taken a math class since my junior year of high school, but occasionally I do complicated multiplication and division problems in my journal to exercise my brain, so I’m sure I’ll be fine. Also, I’m going to take a class.
Application deadlines for fall 2012 are this winter, so I will take creative writing classes at the community college this fall to prepare some writing samples for submission. Some of these programs are extremely exclusive, only accepting 4 new students a year but I’m not going to let that intimidate me. The fellowships and assistantships require students to teach an average of one class a semester, in return the tuition is waived and the student receives a stipend, in some cases, enough to live on. Some of these programs also have semester abroad opportunities, a summer in Prague or London just for writing.
That’s pretty much my dream life. I have a realistic understanding of the publishing world, but getting the MFA would give me a structured environment, and professional feedback, and teaching experience that would help me get academic positions in the future. I still want to be a librarian. I am still going to the annual ALA conference this June, and will still apply for jobs as they come up. But applying for MFA programs seems like a good next step, since that’s always been part of my plan.
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