a couple of months ago, i got a speeding ticket. i was on 680S in north san jose, driving 78mph. c’mon, seriuosly? who doesn’t drive 78mph at 10:30pm on 680?! anyway, i paid the fine, signed up for traffic school, then promptly forgot about it… until last night.
i dug up my traffic school paperwork at about 11:30pm, and registered with the only online traffic school approved by santa clara county. i’ve taken these courses before. you fast forward through all the pages, answer some common sense questions, and maybe you even have to google an answer or two. but all in all, it’s not more than an hour worth of work, right? not so.
the wonders of flash technology made me wait for some period of time before allowing me to advance each screen. on average, it was probably about 30 seconds that i had to spend on each page, but it felt like 10 minutes. in addition to that, there were questions interspersed in the materials designed to confirm my identity. between learning about how to drive out of a mud pit and how to maintain control on icy roads, i had to enter my weight, as printed on my driver’s license. uhhh, lemme check. i got my license when i was 16 (that was a long time ago), and i probably lied about it then =P i don’t remember what i reported my weight to be! i wonder if the DMV employees who process paperwork for drivers licenses often look at the person, look at the weight they claim to be, and then go and have a good laugh.
while waiting to advance through the pages of the online course, i was playing texas hold’em online and IM’ing with friends. that was really helpful in passing the time. when i finally got to screen 119 of 119, i was sooo happy to be finished with my traffic school course. it was 2am and i was getting sleepy, but i couldn’t complain too much — the experience wasn’t horrible. but to my dismay, i quickly realized that i had merely completed module 1. there were 5 more modules to go. ugh.
*****
today is a new day. i hit the online course as soon as the puppies were done with their 6am feeding. i am happy to say that i am finally D-O-N-E done with traffic school, and i also doubled my money in facebook’s weekly poker tourney =P
*i can’t drive 55* -sammy hagar
September 4th, 2008 at 10:41 am
the online traffic school course i took not only made you wait a specified amount of time before you could advance the page and ask you to confirm your identity (no weight question though), but it also made you go to a center to take the “final” exam.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
The online one I took, you could just do a copy of each page, skip to the test at the end of each section, then take it (just do a find of the pasted out reading for the answer). Wow, think i was done in about 1 hour!. So yes I speed thru that like I was speeding on 280.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
the last time i was, ahem, in the same situation, i wasn’t able to take an online course. i had to go to comedy school on a saturday. :=(
August 30th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Online traffic school is simple and saves so much time. Everyone should do it if available in their state.