Why So High?

Why was the cost of this ticket so high? No other infractions that I saw in my court observations came close to this fee (See Early Court Observations).

The closest was a Failure to Appear, which had a fee of $396 but it seemed to get the previous fee dropped.

The best argument I could piece together at this point is that a rolling stop at a red light is a breach of the area that is designated for different directional traffic and because some drivers breach this space at high speeds that can kill people, the fee is high. It just so happens that there is no discrimination among breaches that happen straight through at 80mph or those that happen at something like 2 mph on a right turn on red. All breaches cost the same because some of them are potentially deadly even though a high percentage of them are innocuous and easy to distinguish from the others.

I don't know why running a stop sign at 20mph in Half Moon Bay may only be $238. Maybe stop signs are cheaper? Maybe Half Moon Bay has different fees?

I wondered how much other violations cost:

• right turn rolling stop at a stop Sign
• right turn rolling stop at a stop Light
• driving straight through (no turn) a stop Sign
• driving straight through (no turn) a stop Light
• using cellphone while driving
• not wearing seatbelt
• wrong way down one way street
• over the speed limit
• bicycle law - 3 ft away
• wreckless driving
• jaywalking

I went to the Redwood City Police Station and asked.

They told me that the fees are set by the courts.

"So is there a website that I can go to to see the fees?" I asked.

"No, I would go search on the web just like you to see if there was one." staff responded.

So, it seemed there was no official public site that the police used. I wonder how they determine what fee to put on the tickets they write. They do include fees, don't they? Or does everyone have to go to the traffic window to learn how much their ticket costs?

I have received parking tickets and they included fees but I'd never received a moving violation ticket until now. Are parking ticket fees set by the police?

I actually had imagined that an email list existed that members of the public could sign up for to get alerts when fees changed. Um ... no.

At this writing, I have yet to visit "the courts" to ask.


Another reason that was put forth about why this fee is so high was the vehicle code. This was said, it seemed, to be the end of discussion but all I could think was that we do what seems a rather squirrely dance to figure out how to give out speeding tickets. That must be part of the vehicle code. Why can't that squirrely mechanism be used for this infraction?

In order to give someone a speeding ticket, I understand that an elaborate algorithm is used to determine just what speed should be used for the basis of issuing tickets. It's not as simple as using the posted speed limit sign. I had heard a friend describe this to me years ago but I didn't believe it. Now that I've heard something similar from a police officer, ok, I believe it.

So why isn't something like this implemented for rolling stops? Especially since everyone drives like this and we don't have an accident problem due to this kind of driving and we don't have pedestrians running scared.

How many rolling stops are performed each week in the San Francisco Bay Area?

Given that I see at least 99% of all stops as rolling stops, stops that would not meet the requirement of an officer looking for wheels completely stopped, I am counting all stops at stop signs as rolling stops. And I am estimating that 25% of all right turns on red are rolling stops and not complete stops forced by other traffic.

Population of San Francisco Bay Area - 7 million people

Population within 18-64 years of age - 4.6 million people

This doesn't include drivers outside this range, but hey, we'll go conservative and see where that gets us.

Population within that age range that drives a vehicle 5 days a week - I guess at least 50% do = 2.3 million people

Number of rolling stops committed per day - I guess that 3 is on the low side.

Times 5 days/week = 15 rolling stops / driver / week

Times 2.3 million drivers = 34.5 million rolling stops / week

How many accidents due to rolling stops?

My estimate is probably conservative by 2x, 3x, or more.


In all my discussions about this, no one ever cited a county-wide accident study as the possible basis for ticketing these infractions. They didn't even wonder if this study existed. Everyone seemed to act as if we don't have this sort of accident problem.

Please tell me if you know of a study that would support these tickets being issued.

Or - maybe we should ticket speeding more like we ticket rolling stops. If we were willing to put a camera on every overpass and issue tickets to drivers who go one mile over the posted speed limit, then I might be better able to swallow part of the ticket I was issued. Someone please tell me why this is an illogical thought.


Pennsylvania just made it a misdemeanor to touch a pregnant woman's stomach without her permission. Another example of a similar crime, I think, would be choking someone to death. The penalty for that is probably on the order of 20 years in prison. How the red light violation fees are applied makes me wonder if this new misdemeanor should have the same penalty as the choking crime.


I have not yet learned how many points my infraction was worth. I never saw or heard a number mentioned yet in an official capacity or one I could trust . And I have yet to ask. Too much of this seems an unnecessary mystery. I am surprised to learn just how much of this is hidden, possibly able to be made up on the fly depending on who knows what.

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