How many Traffic Fines (including Parking) have you got in the past 12 months?

Love my wife - She starts to learn how to be more independent on doing things in life - eg drive around on her own, drop kid to school.

She copes with few traffic fines and parking tickets this year.

  • driving unregistered vehicle (for 2 days. a relatively new car. an oversight as no longer have registration sticker in NSW) - $638
  • driving past fixed speed camera - 5km over (day dreaming?) - $300+
  • parking longer than the sign stated (in a remote suburb street with plenty of parking) - $106.

All up to just over $1000 so far.
She is remorseful and apologetic to her mistakes for which I paid for : (

Would like to know if it is just me who think $106 for a minimum parking fine is expensive - a day salary to many.

Told my wife, I now budget in my head around $1000 for Traffic Fines each year for the "stupidity tax" (stupid mistakes we all make) as cost of living. Not sure if this is enough, so I want to know the others' experience.

How many Traffic Fines (including Parking) do you have In the past 12 months?
(If you actually drive)

PS. after receiving the parking ticket, bought an App "ParkPatrol" afterwards to set alarm for parking and to alert others when rangers are spotted. So far having fun. I wish but have no financial interest on this.

Poll Options expired

  • 399
    0 - you deserve a medal!
  • 61
    1
  • 17
    2
  • 8
    3
  • 8
    4-6
  • 0
    7-9
  • 5
    10 and over (Ouch!!)

Comments

  • +4

    Zero.
    I used to get heaps when I was pre 30 , I also had lots of accidents (always someone elses fault of course . sarcasm)
    Now I am a bit older I no longer have accidents or get tickets.
    I wonder what the correlation is?

    • +19

      I lost my licence as a 17 year old.
      Never had another fine after that.

      • +7

        I got 4 fines in about the same number of months, and then got pipped doing a stupid speed on a public road (immediately lost my license for one month).
        I then got a courtesy letter informing me that I only had one point remaining ( that now had to last me 2 1/2 years or I would lose my license for 3 more months)
        That was 14 years ago and never had a fine since.

      • +2

        I hope you're older than 17 now!

  • +15

    Some people have no traffic fines their whole life.

    • Ditto.

      :)

    • +33

      Which doesn't mean they don't break any rules, just that they've never been issued a fine.

    • +3

      I am one of those people, been driving 16 years since I was 17.

      • +1

        What are your tips?

        • +20

          Try not to speed and park illegally.

        • +3

          Most people do most of their driving to and from work - and that's not when most enforcement happens. It's had to speed when the traffic is so thick you can't do more than 40, and police rarely bother to enforce the rest of the rules unless they're trying to discourage people from driving in a certain area (lots of defects happen very close to mountain roads where bikes and fast cars go recreationally).

          The only fines I've ever had in traffic were for riding around the traffic - which has since been legalised.

        • @onetwothree: I was going to say drive and park carefully!

  • Where was the speed camera she got done for 5km over? I was always under the impression there is a good margin over that, unless it was a school zone of course.

    • I think the tolerance margins are different in each state. Pretty sure QLD has a wider tolerance margin, thankfully.

    • My guess is that her speedometer would be 80km (in 70km zone), but notice shows only 75.

    • It was school zone but not during school hours.

    • The margin in most states is 3km/h.

      If she was caught doing 75, she would've been actually doing 78.

      • I thought the margin was a percentage. E.g if it's 10% then doing 55 in a 50 zone or 110 in a 100 zone would be enough to be photographed for a fine.

        • +1

          No, that would be far fairer, considering it's known that speedometers are not usually calibrated accurately.

        • From my understanding (at least in Victoria) a tolerance of 3km/h applies to mobile devices and 2km/h for fixed devices, where the speed limit is below 100km/h.

          For areas with a speed limit of 100km/h or higher, a tolerance of 3% is applied.

        • I'm pretty sure that's the way it is in NSW. I know I've been in cars driving around 5 kph over past fixed cameras and never been fined

        • +3

          The percentage margin is actually a myth. Here is (NSW) RTA page detailing each type of fine: http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/roads/safety-rules/offences-penalt…

          Theoretically you can be fined going just 1km/hr over, but I don't think any camera is going to book you for that. They will all have a small margin of a few km/h built in, as well as police radar (they won't chase you down for going 83 in an 80 zone), however they will almost always get you going 87 in an 80 zone, even though it's within the 10%.

          As far as speedo accuracy goes, most cars will report a conservative estimate of speed. At 100km/h the real speed is usually between 96-98km/h. For example in 2 different cars that we own, to cruise at 100km/h according to the GPS (accurate), the speedo actually indicates 105km/h. Sitting at 110 in a 100 zone will be realistically about 104-105, so you might get away without a fine, even though you might think you're going faster :)

        • @brezzo: I drive many different cars as hire car often for business travel with GPS. Think it is true to all made I had driven except Toyota - its speedo is accurate, so make sure I do not add 5km on speed.

    • WA speed cameras have a tolerance of 8KM/H+.

      • It used to only be five. I once copped a fine for doing "not more than six kilometres per hour" over the speed limit. That was many years ago, and I haven't had another one since.

  • +1

    2 parking fines since i started driving (15yrs) :)

  • +2

    In my whole life the only fine or anything I have received was for 'negligent driving' for rear ending someone when I first got my P plates (probably wouldn't have even got a ticket for that except my mum freaked out and flagged down some police to attend the incident and they had no choice but to ticket me apparently).
    Have been driving 18 years now and nothing since.

    • +2

      they have a choice, the just have a quota to fill

  • +5

    None, but I mostly drive a bicycle and an Opal card. :)

    • +2

      There's plenty of potential to get a fine from those activities if you weren't well behaved :)

    • +3

      Our old neighbour got done for riding his bike whilst drunk. The reason he was on the bike was because he lost his licence (guess why).

  • +5

    Have also had 0 for ages, and I (unfortunately) drive quite a lot. The last was about 8 years ago, I was driving interstate and didn't know the area and missed a speed sign. Less likely to happen these days, I'd probably be using GPS which would warn me.

    I was excited to learn when I renewed my licence in NSW that you get a 'good driver' discount on the fee if you have no driving offences in the previous 5 years. So you don't get a medal, but a discount is pretty good!

    • +1

      50% discount.

    • +1

      In Victoria there's a similar 'good driver discount', though it only applies if you're under 26.

    • +2

      One of the green slip companies offers a much cheaper green slip to 0 point drivers, too. It was about $200 less, for me.

      So kids, think of it this way: in NSW, that first fine is about $500. $300 for the fine and a $200 for the more expensive green slip.

      The only way to never get one is to never, ever speed.

      • +1

        would love to know what company that is.

        the gps is a good idea. mine has a speed camera alert which is hard to ignore

        • +2

          Just use the government greenslip comparison thing like usual:

          http://www.greenslips.nsw.gov.au/

          One of the slips will be way cheaper than the rest if you have zero points.

          (Everyone is using this every single year to buy their greenslips, right? From experience, a different company will be the cheapest for you, every year. I think current providers often actually charge extra after the first year…)

        • @mgowen: I use that, made no difference to me I didn't see any company offering $200 cheaper. I also check this every year. nrma was second best but I thought the policy was better and it was only $3 more ive been with them for awhile. They have done me really well over the years

        • @kima:

          Are you sure you are on zero points? There are probably other conditions too - having you had a licence for driving for more than 5 years?

        • @mgowen: yes I am sure had my license for over 10 years in nsw no accidents or fines. I checked it again today it comes to $320 for 6 months. I get a no claim bonus on insurance but not on greenslip. maybe its go to do with age/gender. is your greenslip more than mine?

        • +1

          @kima:

          Sorry, don't know. It wasn't NRMA. I want to say Zurich or maybe QBE? Maybe there are other reasons it won't apply.

          I haven't seen a greenslip that cheap in many years…

  • +1

    Not sure if this is a Syndey thing, it was quite unusual in the last 2 days.I have driven past 5 road blocks within 24 hours - 4 RBT (daytime), 1 to fine drivers on bus only lane exit off Harbour Bridge. Plus, 2 incidents other drivers were pulled over by Highway Patrols.

  • +8

    $300 for driving 5km/h over the limit? dafaq?

    • +1

      my bad - check the penalties list, she is more likely >10km or fine was less. BTW, notice fine has gone up again from 1st Sep

    • +3

      $300 for driving 5km/h over the limit?

      Welcome to NSW.

      Whenever I got fined in any other state, I wanted to post the amount on OzBargain: "50% off speeding fines in QLD!"

  • I got one fine of 800+ for speeding on Hume Highway caught by Highway Patrol. That was two years back, haven't had a fine since :)

    • +3

      Speeding? $800+?

      Must've been takeoff speed.

  • Copped a fine for parking in a no parking zone in Manly

  • I've had two parking fines, both because I misunderstood the sign, not because it was intentional. And one speeding fine, which I admit to, because I was rattled by another idiot who was tailgating me. I've been driving for 21 years. I have no intention of racking up fines on a regular basis - why would I pay a fine for something that I could have avoided?

    • I've had to go through amber lights because some tosser, behind me, hasn't kept enough distance for me to brake safely, without the risk of the, already inattentive, driver driving up my rear.

  • +11

    I haven't seen any bargains on traffic fines in the last 12 months so haven't got any…

    • +4

      I received a targeted coupon code seems can only be used once only: SPEEDARSE

      • would have been better if it were SPEEDYARSE

  • +1

    So far 10% of sample gets at least one ticket. Thought the percentage would be higher.

  • +2

    I have never had any - ever.

    your wife seems like one of those people that won't learn until they learn the hard way - i.e she has to pay it not you she can say sorry but she isn't really she just says that to get you off her back. But I don't know your relationship and personalities and I don't recommend you cause trouble. happy wife happy life. If she is worth it just let it slide and look at it from a different angle e.g - you pay $1000 a year to keep a good wide happy and stress free. if she is prepared to go through the pain on childbirth to give you kids I wouldn't take that for granted over smaller things in life

    • -1

      Yeah well to be fair, she has put to some with some absolutely horrendous grammar from her husband.

  • +1

    I can only comment on Victoria, but if you are caught speeding less than 10km/h over the limit you can write to Victoria Police and ask for the fine to be withdrawn based on clean history for last two years and they will withdraw the fine and issue a caution notice.

  • +4

    Until she has to pay for the fines from her own earned money, your screwed. Sorry dude!

    Unfortunately, its only getting worse as the road toll goes up and the need for government to fine 'sinners tax' grows

    best bet is the following, tell her that you take her on holidays after 12months of no fines, then bring her to thailand for the holiday.

    When she see's how NO RULES, LICENCE, ANYTHING GOES she will never get fined again, youve taught her discipline and gotten a holiday at least for your troubles

    • she'll be extra pissed if there is another fine and there is no holiday (which is an extra penalty)

    • I don't recommend this unless his wife is 7 years old! In case of a fine, vacation or misery. OP will pick.

    • +2

      And don't forget to spank her every time she comes back with a ticket. Oh and when you say no family vacation, she will say fine and go on a vacation by herself for "me time" and leave you with the kids.

      You're not married, right? To an adult that is?

      • How do you know? She is doing exactly that, Holiday with few school mums and kids to Thailand in few weeks without me,

        There are always something new - 3 minor car accidents in a year, ie installed a dashcam in her car, none of them is her fault, 1 of which someone reversed to her side door in front of school without leaving a note. Every time I need to lodge the claim on her behalf and take her car to repair, Everytime I say no, she gives that dirty look and passive aggressive for few days till I give in.

    • Firstly - Even though there is an 'I' in marriage, in reality/legally that isn't true. Technically she paid 50% off the fines too. Hopefully she'll learn quickly.

      As for me driving for 15 years. 2 speeding fines and 2 parking fines till date. None in the last year.

  • -1

    I've had one parking ticket for not parking in a bay in my old university's carpark (the carpark was full so everybody was parking on the side, we all copped a fine despite it not impeding anyone).

    I've had one speeding ticket from a mobile speed van for doing 95km/h in an 80 zone. The road in question was a 90 zone all along when I had last driven it, but they had decreased one intersection to an 80 zone and I hadn't noticed the change the next time I drove it. Unfortunately for me there was the van there as I bet it's a great revenue raising spot.

    That's all in 8 years driving, never had an accident or been involved in one either. I'm always told I'm a fast driver too!

    • -2

      Revenue raising?

      95 in an 80 zone isn't right. No 'revenue raising' there from what I can tell.

      • I say revenue raising because the road is a 90 zone and it drops to 80 in one small section for no reason, where they conveniently park their speed check van.

        Edit: So I was doing 95 in a 90 zone up until that point.

  • I want to know the story about the guy/gal who clicked the >10 in the past 12 months? My suspicious is that it's a fake.

  • +3

    I received a speeding fine last month 91 in a 80 zone , my first speeding fine in at least 20 years .

    As per a post here years ago in ways to get off from paying a speeding fine I faxed a form from their website saying it was all my fault and mentioned my driving record and they forgave the fine woohoo.

  • I drive most days, mostly in the suburbs of Perth, 13-16,000km a year.

    My last ticket was about 12 years ago. A parking fine because they changed half the parking from free to paid at a local supermarket and I didn't notice the new signs.

    Before that it was another 3 years. 65 in a 60.

    Before that about a year. 67 in a 60.

    A couple of years before that I didn't have a car.

  • +1

    In 35 years of driving I've never had a speeding ticket. Gone awfully close a few times including doing 110k in a 60k zone coming into Queensland when I drove straight past a police car who was obviously doing something else.

  • +3

    She starts to learn how to be more independent on doing things in life

    What was she doing for the first half of her life?

    • never had worked a full time job after study. things got done by asking. always had drop off and pick up. cooking done when home, no need to pay a bill. happy to be a housewife. the turning point is when our kid is at school, she is motivated to cook (for him), make decision and drive.

  • Did not receive any road safety infringement in the past 10 years since I passed my road test. My rule in mind, never speeding,follow all speed restrictions including school zone and roadwork zone. No speed sign road, always drive 50 until speed limit is known.

    • +2

      And guess what?

      Fines are GST free too :)

  • None for me. When I renewed my licence a few months back I qualified for a 10 year (aged 21 to 44) half price licence. For being such a careful driver with a clean slate for the past 5 years.

    Introduction of 10-year driver licence and 10-year NSW Photo Card

    • Congratulations for your clean record and discount. my wife just renewed her licence last week. I was looking at the price. Normally 10 year only saves about $20 from 2 x 5 years licence minus interest on $300+ upfront. Better deal to have a new photo and new card every 5 years.

      • You need to use OzB logic…

        If that price goes up in the next 5 years (it will!) then you've also saved that amount.

        • But if she loses her licence i don't think its refundable. I think it may be safer for op to assume that this is likely to happen.

        • @maximum: Valid point. You just won the interwebs.

  • None, been driving for 7 years now :)

    1. It was the day I got my license, 45 seconds in to a school zone that wasn't a variable sign (no excuse I know). I tried to argue it as I was going 44km/h in what would have been a 50 zone anyway but no luck.
  • +5

    I get heaps average around $400 a month. Owner driver delivering white goods to homes in the inner city of Melbourne. I'm on the road 10 hours a day 6 days a week. City of Stonnington is by far the worst place for fines. They build massive residential apartment buildings and cant put a loading zone to service residence. Malcolm street in south yarra is a great example 4 massive residential buildings and not one loading zone within half a kilometre. The other day I got one in Claremont steet in south yarra. They are building another high rise so pretty much the whole street is zoned work permit with only one loading zone to service 1000's of people. They had 2 parking inspectors on the street fining commercial vehicles. Even the building managers have written to council but nothing changes. The best fine to date was in Clayton when I was delivering a microwave to a customer. The whole street was a permit zone so I knocked on the customers door only to look back and see a parking inspector literally bolt out his car,slap on a ticket and run back to his car. Didn't even have time to get a permit from the customer. Its not worth fighting that sort of garbage in court. What can you do except for pay the fine while muttering fn a@se munchers.

    • +1

      So sorry to hear your story.
      Good to have law and order, but witnessing plenty of "cheap tickets" are given (fines issued are by cheap shot/grey area). Are there incentive/performance quota per month on the number of fines issued?

      eg. a section of street was changed from parking to no parking zone between 830 to 930 am. One day a ranger did a convert operation. Every 5 minutes there were motorists not aware of the change (many seniors live in the area) parked there. The ranger walked out from his car once the unknown drivers parked and walked away. Issued the fine and got back to his car and repeated. I was having coffee opposite with my friends and could not agree. Left my coffee and ran after two of the drivers as the ranger was walking out of his car, pointed them to the sign and the hidden ranger. Ranger said good that I was telling the drivers not to park there, then drove away.

      Commercial vehicles usually do not get booked unless obstructing traffiic, but not in Australia.
      Imagine fines were ultimately paid by users.
      OZBers will not have free/cheap shipping for our online shopping delivered to the door. : (

  • 0.

    Note that I also spend all day on the road (bus driver) and I've been fortunate enough to not receive any fines in quite some time.

    I've still got my 14 points available to use, and I'd like to keep it that way.

  • +1

    True Oz bargainers don't waste money on speeding fines .

  • Had a few speeding fines in the past but nothing in the last 5 or 6 years.

    My wife got a $250 parking fine the other week. She parked in a street near her work that has been unrestricted for the last few years. Now they have painted a yellow line there which she didn't see due to the number of parked cars there. Also since when did yellow lines start being used in Sydney? No stopping signs are usually what you look for and its very underhand in my view. Several people from her work have been fined since they painted this line, one person twice as the first ticket blew off her windscreen and she was unaware of it.

    Not only is the way they have gone about this obviously sneaky and aimed at revenue raising, but the size of the fine is ridiclous. We are going to try and protest it but I don't like our chances and going to court simply isn't worth it as they will have legal bases covered despite it being morally very poor.

    • +1

      Mosman councils started in 2014, City of Sydney moving towards it now
      http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-councils-look-to-reduce-str…

      I read it originally as something shared on facebook and people were going mental in the comments, which is the only thing that made me notice it. I feel like there should have been an advertising campaign or something, there are enough ads around about trams on George St. But I don't live in any of those council areas so perhaps there was something more local.

      You never know, maybe they would be lenient whilst it is new if you appeal

  • At least for Victoria (I'm pretty sure it works for other states).

    If you are caught speeding:
    * < 10km
    * havent had an offence in last 2 years
    * admit fault

    You can apply for an official caution and get the fine and points removed. Have never had it fail from my group of friends as long as they fit the criteria.

    For the unregistered vehicle - you could possibly ask for an official review as it was not left unregistered for long and was corrected promptly.

    • re unregistered vehicle, local MP wrote to Department of Finance on our behalf and got knock back.
      Points in short.
      1.It is not mandatory for RMS to send renewal notice.
      2.green slip insurance renewal should be enough as backup reminder.
      3. drivers is responsible to ensure the vehicle is registered. Without sticker, driver is supposed to check on servicensw online. (My wife is not tech savy but does not matter. it is the law - what can you do?!)

  • One in 2012 for going through a orange traffic light. BS

    • Failing to stop at an amber light?

  • I used to get a parking fine roughly once a month back in Uni because I never pay for parking.
    During workdays, uni only have 1 flat fee of around $15 for whole day parking. It's so silly why they don't have per hr fee for shorter parking.

    Because of this exorbitant parking fee, I ended up never pay for parking and even with monthly parking fine I still came on top.
    Back then, the parking fine is only $60

  • Patriarchal undertones aside, just take it on the chin as it comes; you will never get used to it! :D

  • +2

    I've had one parking fine where a parking spot turned into a Clearway at 4pm. Fine issued at 4:10… Apart from that I've been driving 15 years without any speeding fines. It's not that hard to do, and I don't drive like a Camry driver.

    Someone I knew racked up $20k in parking fines. He would buy old cars (sub $1k) and drive them until they stopped or fell apart. Then dump the vehicle. He would park where ever he pleased. The fines came and he never paid, so they just kept multiplying. When it got to $20k he was summoned to court to work out some sort of deal, as the government figured they would never get more than a dollar off him. Some people just don't feeling like cooperating with everyone else, and never will.

    • Geez what kind of deal did they get?

      • +1

        PARK-ARSE

  • I've been quite unlucky. About $2,000 worth of fines in the past 12 months.

    • $2k wasted and you're on OzB?

Login or Join to leave a comment