My thirty-one years of life have yielded only three traffic violations! Why so few? Well, I was taught at home that I should respect everything on four wheels. And this was hammered home to me right from when I was a kid. Plus, I attended a driver education program at a high school. The people conducting the program believed that residents in places where winter conditions could be harsh should know how to handle their cars on snow or sleet or ice. As a result, I grew up into a great driver, always mentally alert and prepared for everything. Yes, like all boys, I loved speed too! Going back to the past, my first ticket resulted from speeding to outrun a curfew at the age of 16. The 1980s saw me getting a ticket for not having a seat belt. The policeman hauled me up for not having a headlamp, and fined me for this too! The third time was when I ran a red light because I wanted to reach home (one and a half hours away from college) as soon as possible. I had stayed up the whole night!

But last week, having moved and been new in town just recently-in the last couple of months-I got pulled over for speeding. Yikes! I was a bit startled, really, as in my terms I was not speeding, but was doing 44 in a part of town where, I have since studied, the signs go from 35 to 25 to 35 to 25 (in one spot TWO SIGNS, one for 35 AND one for 25 are together?????)almost like a speed trap set-up, if you ask me.

But the officer was hella cool: not only was he kind and jocular, but one of the first things he said, after asking me when was the last time I got a speeding ticket (which was 30 years ago), was that I could go to traffic school online!

I had heard friends talking over the last few years about traffic school online, about how you can keep from adding points to your driver record (points increasing means, evidently, insurance rates increasing), and I had learned of friends having done traffic school online to relieve the cost of the traffic ticket. (A red light violation, once a staggering $107 in my area, for example, is now almost $400!) So now I get to experience first hand the traffic school online adventure.

There are various such schools available online, but it is preferable to enroll in one which is legal and awards you a certificate at the end of the course to prove that you are a good driver. This is useful should you ever come up in front of a traffic court. Additionally, the teaching hours are convenient. You are allowed to choose your own hours of study. The fees are affordable. Also, the education is presented in a very interesting way, ensuring that it appeals to all kinds of people. For the action-oriented person, there are games; for the verbal learner, text only; and for the visual type, there are short films and cartoons.

I have decided to enroll myself in traffic school online. My choice would be comedy or games and cartoons. I hope to end the course with honors and not too much humiliation. After all, I learnt everything 31 years ago, and do forget my lessons sometimes!