Traffic Fines Chart

I have plotted a number of traffic moving violations as well as other infractions on the above graph.

The x-axis is risk of harm. On a scale of 1-10, I made my best judgment.

Now, compare that to the fee associated with each.

I would think in general that the greater the harm, the higher the fee. So those infractions related to moving violations should fall along a somewhat diagonal line from lower left to upper right.

But we can see that the tie for highest fee is for an infraction that is associated with little harm.

Having been an avid utilitarian cyclist for decades, I am appalled at the comparison of $35 for breaching the space of a cyclist - that IS on the road - that DOES present the possibility of a person who could be hurt - to $490 for a rolling stop at a red light when no one is in the nearby space.

I am equally appalled that hitting a cyclist garners a fee less than half of the rolling stop fee with no pedestrians or bicyclists around.

I heard a news report on a local San Jose news station discussing the 26 pedestrian deaths in that city. Not a word was mentioned about rolling stops being even part of the culprit. Rolling stops weren't mentioned at all.

Everything I've learned to this point seems to gel that the only reason this infraction is ticketed at such a high price is because it can be paired with the infraction of going straight through a red light, which often ends up in severe injury or death. And since so many people commit this infraction, it's an easy resource for funds.

Please feel free to share studies that show otherwise.

NOTE:

$35, $220 cyclist infractions - I learned from traffic school Feb 2014

$490 for both infractions - I learned from getting my own ticket June 2013 and learning that my right turn on red was not distinguished from a ticket for running straight through a red light.

$161+ for texting was displayed on several different highway computerized signs Feb 27, 2014.

All the rest - $396, $320, $238, $145 - I witnessed people in court Fall 2013 receiving tickets for these infractions at these amounts. I don't know if these fees were originals or had been decreased some. I did notice different judges offered different discount schemes. I don't yet know of a place that lists the standard fees for these infractions.