I'm a repeat offender. Usually if I did it once and got toasted for it and then found myself in a similar situation, I'd not do the same thing wrong. Well. Ugh.
If you live or have ever been in Peoria, you know your way around to some extent. Peoria has within it a small town called Peoria Heights. I do not know the
history of Peoria Heights, but it seems to be a community of businessman created quite a long while ago.
Through the heart of Peoria Heights is a popular thoroughfare called
Prospect Avenue. This also goes through Peoria. There's a section of this road that changes the speed limit to 25 mph. I know this.
However, I was on my way to work one afternoon and wasn't paying particular attention and got pulled over for going 35. I got the ticket. $75. A rip off I know, but it's a bargain, apparently, compared to what it'd have been in the
state of WI. Yikes.
Anyway ... long story short, I completed a
traffic course yesterday, which cost me another $40. Doing this keeps the ticket from going on my driving record and hopefully from affecting my car insurance rates. Frankly, I am not so worried about my record as that's mostly good but, I am tired of getting ripped off for car insurance.
Well the class was over, and there were some characters in that class. One woman said she'd been ticketed for not stopping at a stop sign. Apparently, there was no stop sign to stop at, but the officer was hearing none of it. Another woman was pulled over for going 90 mph in a much slower zone. Her excuse to the class: she comes from a family of race car drivers. Yeah, I am sure that went over well with the officer. One girl said that she got pulled over for speeding more than five miles past where the officer first spotted her speeding. She got mouthy with him and asked him why he did not pull her over sooner.
The class went over the basics of traffic safety. The instructor was very good and kept everyone engaged and awake and encouraged questions. He even asked everyone for their pet peeves when driving. I had a few.
You know when you come to a four way stop and no one goes. Everyone just sits there? I hate that. I mean if it's your turn, go for pete's sake. The other one I have is when people change lanes in front of me at the last second, going from the far right to the far left and then into a turn lane. What possible reason can a person have for being in the complete opposite lane that they need to be in and waiting til the last possible second to get where they need to be. I am loathe to let people cross in front of me who drive like this. I think that if you wait that long, you should have to miss your spot, go forward and turn around and go back.
In short, people should pay attention when they drive. Yes, this applies to me. If I had been paying attention, I would have been going 25 not 35 and wouldn't have had to fork over all that dough. I could have used all that money on gas, and that would allow me to block dumb dumbs who don't know how to be in the right lane. :)
