Driving in to work today, I saw, in three separate instances, three people driving too fast and way too aggressively. The interesting thing is that all three cars were high-end vehicles. I’d venture to guess that the three drivers just weren’t concerned about the expense of a speeding ticket or the cost of insurance going up as the result of their potential moving violations.
It dawned on me that this is how the system is structured. The fines associated with speeding tickets, in every place that I’ve known of, are a simple formula. Something like X(base infraction fine) + Y(some dollar amount for each MPH above the limit). Perhaps a flat fee for certain speeds over the limit.
This system doesn’t provide an effective consequence for those in with higher than average incomes. Basically, the more money you make, the less effective the fines are for deterring the behavior.
It seems that a slightly more complex system where it was a base fine + some percent of your income would be more effective. This is how taxes work, why not apply the same thinking to moving violations? On a similar note, parking violations could be based on the current NADA value of the car. There should be a base fine, then a factor that increases the fine that would be relative to income. Is this fair? Some might say not, but I believe it would work.
Oh yeah, and texting while driving, those bastards should lose their car and driver’s license for a week for 1st offense, and double that time for each subsequent infraction.YES!
