Hi,

Here are my ideas for freeing up the traffic court (judges can do other more important work!), while hopefully improving the driving standards on our roads.

Points on Driver’s License

Keep it simple.  A 5 point maximum on drivers licenses.  Exceed 5 points and your license is taken away for a period of time (like 12 months).

Points can be awarded as follows:

• Traffic violation (not stopping at sign, running red light, etc) – 1 point
• Speeding - Blocks of 10 km/h over the posted speed limit – 1 point (Doing 63 in a 60 zone, 1 point.  Doing 118 in 80 zone, 3 points)
• Not paying the fine on time – 1 point
• Not driving with your license – 1 point

Points will be removed from your license after a fixed period from the date you paid the fine for the point (like 12 months).

Speeding tickets and traffic violation tickets will be issued on the spot (like parking tickets are now).  You have 30 days to pay.  Each 30 day period or part thereof beyond payment date will incur 1 point.

If you wish to protest or object to the ticket, you may do so by calling a number on the ticket and making an appointment in traffic court.  However it must be noted that if found guilty in traffic court, the fines may be more than the ticket.  This should discourage appointments in court.

You may or may not already have a system for Police in the field.  My idea is assuming that you do not have one.  Again, keeping it simple…

Officer pulls over a vehicle.  They call to “dispatch” to get updated info on a driver or vehicle.  They also report in the offence, which is updated in the system.  If the driver now accumulates  the 5 points, the license will be taken on the spot.

Right now, when you get a loan to purchase a vehicle, there is a fee charged for a history of the vehicle.  Government can also charge insurance companies a fee for access to the system.  This access (or reports that you give them) will show the current points on a license, as well as when they expire and a category for each point. Reports will show only current offences, and not past offences. E.g.

Insurance companies will want to pay this fee because they can use this data to raise or lower insurance premiums.  Just like a credit score.

Joe Public can also access the report, in the same way they have a Police certificate of character.  As employers may want a CoC along with a drivers license report as consideration for employment.

Payments of fines can be made at any BRA location, just present the ticket.  These payments will then be applied to the license data.

I wish we could pay online, but that is another discussion.

I hope my idea shows we can hopefully reduce traffic court backlog, allow the judiciary to focus on more important duties, create a more timely ticketing and revenue generating stream.  It should take care of the chief traffic offenders – ZR, minibus, reckless drivers, speeders.

Regards,

Jason Downey

Information Systems Security Manager

Massy