Traffic School

As sad and unfortunate as it was to get a traffic ticket, I would say this time's traffic school wasn't bad compare to the last one.

Two years ago I went to traffic school in Half Moon Bay. Our instructor was a retired police officer, and he was quite tough. We had to watch gruesome pictures of people being killed in drunk driving accidents. The class made me feel like a criminal. :(

This time, I signed up for a pizza4U - Comedian traffic school, hoping I would have better luck. It happened on last Sunday at 8 AM, and it was a full day class.

The class was held in a mangy La Quinta on El Camino Real in Millbrae. I arrived 5 minutes late, because I missed a highway exit. When I walked into the crowded room, the teacher just received a phone call.

"Hello, this is he ... Yes, I'm here."

He hung up and turned to us, "did someone call the traffic school and said there was no instructor?" Someone in the audience raised her hand. "I just got here. Geez, I am 1 minute late, and you call the traffic school on me?" We all chuckled. I felt lucky that he was late too.

I managed to find a seat next to a big black guy. His name was Alfred, but the instructor kept calling him Albert despite his protest.

Our instructor's name was Mr. Elizarde, it was like Lizard adding an "e" in front and at the end. He used to teach high school driver's ed for 30 some years, when it was required. He was an easy going person. He made it clear that he was not the comedian and he was just the instructor, but he was actually quite funny. Maybe because of he was a teacher, he had this ritual of trying to learn everyone's name, even though it was just a one-day class. He even made a little seating chart during the break.

He started by saying something like this: "I can see that we have a quite diverse class, people of different ages and nationalities. You would think that the more you drive, you have more experience, you would be better and wouldn't get into trouble and getting tickets. Unfortunately it isn't the case. It just catch up with you sometime.

A lot of people feel upset when they got traffic tickets. They said, there are so many people driving ruthlessly, speeding and cutting people off, they never got caught. Now, I made a little mistake, and I got a ticket for it? That's unfair." Yes, I feel this way all the time. "And I would ask them," Mr. Elizarde continued, "can you catch all the fish? The police catch someone that made mistakes then move on to the next fish. That's just how it works."

We broke into groups to do group discussion. For our group, we were supposed to talk about how different conditions such as: sadness/stress, fatigue, angry, etc. impact driving. However, we spent a lot of time socializing.

We found out how everyone got the ticket. This one young woman, who didn't know what fatigue meant, she didn't stop at a stop sigh around her school. She said the police who caught her was very nice, just asked her where she went to school and stuff, and gave her a warning. Then a few days later, she got caught by the same police officer for the same reason, so he gave her a ticket.

The high school boy sitting next to me turned left onto a one way street against the traffic.

I got my picture taken when I turned right on a red light without stopping. I was most disappointed to see my own profile picture on the ticket, because I looked so big from the side. Of course I didn't share that with people.

A retired lady with silver hair, who lived in San Francisco, got her first ticket on the freeway for speeding. She said the officer was very nice, she gave her a ticket then told her: "next time don't stop at the left of the freeway. You are supposed to move all the way to the right, then stop."

Alfred got a ticket for not stopping at the stop sign. He said the police officer gave everyone in the neighborhood a ticket and this one day, he got one too.

I actually learned something from the class:

• You should always go to court for your traffic ticket, because close to 100% of the time the judge would reduce the fine for at least $100.
• There were incidents you could do community services wave the fine.
• Traffic sign colors: red, black, white - they are enforced signs; yellow - warning; blue - constructions ahead; green - freeway signs; brown - scenic signs.
• Everyone should get an updated copy of California Traffic Laws from the DMV, they are free.
• When you couldn't see the other driver's face in his driver side back mirror, you are on his blind spot. You should always stay away from someone's blind spot.
• I reviewed the 3 second rule to find out if you were too close to the car in front of you.

We had Domino's Pizza and it was delicious. Even though it didn't include drinks.

At the end of the day, I got 100% on my test and got a couple of tickets to a comedy show in San Francisco when I received my certificate. I felt like human as I walked out of the class.