Ignorance can be more expensive than you know

I am a good driver. Never had a serious accident - just one fender bender in high school and one near miss sliding off the road with a van full of passengers while driving in snow and ice to my brother's wedding - that was scary! It's also one reason I live where it doesn't snow and ice in the winter.

But back to the topic...I never knowingly drive more than 5 mph over the speed limit. The key word here is "knowingly". I thought I knew the speed limits of all the roads around here, especially the ones I drive literally every day. Turns out, I don't...correction, didn't.

About a month ago, I was taking my daughters to gymnastics practice and to be honest, we were running a few minutes behind, but not bad. The road we take down to the highway has a speed limit of 45 mph...for the first 2/3 of the way, but then it changes to 35 mph the last couple miles - this is the part that would have been helpful to know. No one else was on the road going our direction (which was strange, since it's always busy), and I was chatting with the girls and looked down at the speedometer about the same time that a police car was passing me going the other direction. Knowing that the speed limit was 45 (or so I thought) when I saw I was going about 55, I immediately took my foot off the gas only to look in the mirror and see the police car whip a U-turn and turn his lights on. Blast!

The girls, of course, are saying, "I wonder who he's after." and "Why are we pulling over?" And I'm answering, "Mommy may have been going a little too fast. I guess we'll find out.", praying all the while that he would zoom past on the way to some emergency. No luck - he pulled over behind us, lights flashing. A very intimidating looking police officer came up to the car and said that he pulled me over because he clocked me going 56 and did I realize this was a 35 zone? Gulp...no. I handed over my license and registration with shaking hands (how do real criminals handle the stress?) and waited for him to bring back my ticket. I had no hopes of just a warning on this one! He brought back my ticket for me to sign and asked if I had any questions. I timidly ask where the speed zone changes, because I never knew this was only a 35 mph zone and I drive this road every day. He tells me where and then adds for good measure, "It's been there for years." And when I looked on the way home, sure enough there is a speed limit sign right where he said - blast, I AM a blind idiot!

After dropping the girls off at practice, really late by this time, I take a minute to look closer at the ticket and about passed out when I saw the fine - $266! What!?! I've never had a ticket or been stopped for speeding in my life, surely there's a pro-rated fine for first time offenders. I mean, that's only fair, right? I read all the fine print on the back of the ticket twice and couldn't find anything other than lots of dire threats of what will happen if I don't pay this fine within 30 days. No first-time offender rate chart to be seen - that is so not right!

I was sure my dear husband was going to have a fit. Especially since this happened the day after I broke the door handle in his car. Double blast! Fortunately, dear husband knows my good driving record and knows I've been having a bad week and doesn't lecture or yell at me, even after I tell him how much it's going to cost (yes, I am blessed to be married to him).

Fast forward 28 days to last week...I went down to the courthouse to pay my fine. I had to wait in line. Apparently I was the only person in the place that was only paying one ticket. The first guy in line was trying to explain to the cashier why he had gotten 2 tickets in July and 2 in August and now 1 this month for not having registration for his car. The other people in front of me had 3 or 4 tickets along with some kind of court documentation and were trying to figure out which ones they had to pay that day. The guy behind me was talking on the phone about how he was at the courthouse "paying one of my tickets" and how he had spent 3 hours that morning getting his drivers license replaced because he had lost it and had to have it to show before he could pay this one. Then when I was up at the cashier's window, she sees someone come in and recognizes him, calls him by name and says hi - apparently he's there paying tickets alot. And my thoughts were: 1) how can people afford all these tickets? and 2) this explains why Florida drivers are so dangerous - Yikes!

Now, I opted to take a traffic school class so that no points go on my license and our insurance won't go up. I have 60 days to do this. The problem is there are so many to choose from. I started getting flyers in the mail within a few days of getting the ticket. Every day. Usually more than one. I'm really glad that my mail lady knows that I did something worthy of all these traffic school mailings. I can take a 4 hour class in person, by DVD, or online. It can be serious, fun or exciting. It's ridiculous. I want the cheapest one. Period. I haven't picked one yet, but as soon as I have a 4 hour chunk of time that is unspoken for, that will be how I spend it.

Which brings us to the moral of this story: Ignorance is not bliss. Speeding tickets are an expensive and time consuming way to find out the local speed limits. I highly recommend just looking at the signs instead.