8 Traffic Ticket Tips

What to do if you're pulled over and issued a ticket

These few tips will help you out if you're issued a ticket (Casey Serin, Flickr).

Nobody likes paying for tickets. But if you're a driver, they're a fact of life -- especially at the end of the month or around the holidays when police scramble to fill their quotas. The odds are that as a motorist you're going to have a run-in with the law.

While we don't condone unsafe driving, we do believe that there are ways to make sure a bad day on the road doesn't lead to a bad day for your wallet. Here are some tips on how to avoid getting a ticket. The tips are divided between those you can use on the road when you've been pulled over and those you can use in court--if it gets that far.

On the Road

Be polite

It may be a routine traffic stop to you, but the cop doesn't know how dangerous the situation might be. So, when he pulls you over, keep in mind that he's looking at it as a tense situation. If you're rude, you'll only make it worse and lessen your chances of escaping the ticket. Be polite; roll down your window and turn off your radio. If you smoke, put out the cigarette. All of these things are common courtesy and they all communicate something to the officer: You care enough to give him your undivided attention. Talking on your cell phone or insisting that he hurry up is a surefire way to land yourself a ticket.

Don't talk too much

The more you talk, the more he can use against you in court. That doesn't mean you have to be a mute, but sometimes cops will let you think you're talking your way out of it when they're really just giving you enough rope to hang yourself. Don't let yourself get into a conversation in which you confess to breaking the law so that you may get off with a warning. Once the patrolman has a confession, he or she has what's needed to beat you in court should you contest the ticket.

Don't argue or plead ignorance

The side of the road is no place to argue. Sometimes a cop might try to bait you into an argument (they're human and we all have bad days). But, usually, an argument can be avoided. If you can't get the officer to see things your way by calmly and clearly stating your case, don't keep going. If you do, you will only antagonize him.

As for ignorance, think again. It might work if you're a cute girl, but for most guys, it's just a lame excuse. When you get your license, you agree to abide by the rules of the road, so ignorance just isn't going to fly. Plus, it's a common excuse, which means cops hear it all the time and are less likely to let you off with just a warning.

Ask for a warning

It never hurts to ask for a warning. But don't beg -- that's a sign of weakness. It's also very annoying. When an officer gives you a warning, he's doing you a favor, so try to approach asking for a warning the same way you might ask a friend to help you move. It's a big favor on his part, and you've got to make him want to help you.

In Court

Present a strong case

Presenting a strong case is about knowing the law. While it will help to review the relevant portion of the driver's handbook, the judge doesn't need you to tell him about the law; trust me, he knows it. Instead, focus on making yourself an effective advocate: Be organized, be on time, speak clearly and dress appropriately. All of these things will set you apart from most of the people the judge sees every day, and he'll be more inclined to rule in your favor if you make his job easier.

Accept a plea

If you're looking at multiple charges, ask to plead guilty to the lesser charge in exchange for dismissing the others. You can do this before your proceeding begins. Oftentimes, judges will do this to save time. The benefit to you is that you can save money and points against your insurance. But remember: The plea bargain only benefits you when you're facing many charges.

Use an attorney

If you're facing serious charges that may result in you losing your license, getting heavy fines or jail time, it's worth bringing a lawyer. That should go without saying, but a lot people think they can fly solo because it's traffic court. Wrong: When your license and your freedom are on the line, you need a lawyer. Ask a friend or consult online listings and reviews to find a lawyer who specializes in traffic offenses.

Request a trial by mail

Most jurisdictions let you make your case by mail. The advantages are twofold. First, you can sit down and think out your case without the pressure of being on the spot and facing the arresting officer and the judge. Second, if you lose, you can request a trial in person, which means you get a second bite at the apple.

Getting ticketed

If there is a common denominator to these tips, it's that you need to know how to handle yourself in a difficult situation. While many men know how to handle a tough day at work or a fight with their girlfriends, an encounter with the law can be a bit scary. The best advice is to relax and fall back on what you've learned.

Volvo offering world's first pedestrian airbag

Volvo

Volvo is betting it can also save pedestrian lives with the world's first external airbag.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau

By even the most conservative estimates airbags have saved thousands of lives since the auto industry began phasing them into widespread use two decades ago.  And now, Volvo is betting it can also save pedestrian lives with the world’s first external airbag.

The new system is one of the many high-tech safety features being introduced on the Swedish maker’s new V40 wagon, which is itself making its world debut at this week’s Geneva Motor Show.

The 5-door features – as one might expect of Volvo – a wide range of advanced safety technology, and along with the new airbag system the V40 has Volvo’s Pedestrian Detection technology designed to prevent a collision in the first place.

 

The V40 itself is based on an all-new architecture that is intended to serve as the platform for a wide variety of upcoming Volvo products, including replacements for the current C30 coupe, S40 sedan and even the bigger V50 wagon.

The maker, which has long based its brand image on advanced safety has been working for several years to develop a pedestrian airbag – which it sees as the most effective way to meet Europe’s strict pedestrian impact legislation.  Continental regulators have been pressing automakers to find ways to reduce the results of car-pedestrian collisions which routinely result in about a quarter or more of motor vehicle fatalities.

Other makers have come up with a variety of solutions, mostly passive.  Typically, that has resulted in modest vehicle design changes to allow the hood of a vehicle to crumple slightly to soften the blow when a pedestrian is hit and lands atop the car.  Other makers have explored the idea of using small pyrotechnic igniters to actually raise the hood after an impact to further cushion the blow.

But with the Volvo system sensors rapidly detect a car-pedestrian impact and respond much like what happens in a car-to-car collision.  That triggers the section of the hood closest to the windshield to pop up slightly, a U-shaped airbag emerging from underneath, and forming a cushion around the base and sides of the windshield and A-pillars.

Along with the pedestrian-related technology the new V40 also includes Volvo’s City Safety system, which can activate the V40’s brakes if it sensors detect a low-speed collision with another vehicle is likely.  The system is designed to step in if the driver is distracted.  But the technology purposely applies the brakes rather abruptly to prevent a driver from simply using City Safety to keep them out of trouble while they text or otherwise ignore driving duties.

In keeping with other recent Volvo products, the maker has been trying to show that a safe vehicle doesn’t have to be a boring one.  The wagon is a curvaceously styled alternative to the classic boxy Volvo of decades past.

The overall design emphasized a lower center of gravity to improve handling, meanwhile, and such functional features as rear monotube shocks improve handling, especially under aggressive driving.

At 177.2 inches. nose-to-tail, the V50 is about an inch longer than the current S40 and about eight inches longer than the current Audi A3 Sportback.

Several versions of the Volvo 1.6-liter turbo I-4 are likely to be offered for the V40, along with a 2.0-liter turbodiesel.

International Women’s Day: 10 ways to celebrate

By Maura Judkis

Happy International Women’s Day! In case you missed the Google Doodle, today’s the day to celebrate women’s accomplishments and advocate for gender equality. In some countries, International Women’s Day is an official holiday. Let these celebrations from around the world — whether they involve cupcakes or lipstick or protest — inspire how you commemorate the day.
Turkish women shout slogans during a protest on the International Women's Day in Ankara on, March 8, 2012. (ADEM ALTAN - AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
1. Take the day off.
In countries where the day is a public holiday, workers get the day off to celebrate. Armenia, Burkina Faso, Mongolia and Kazakhstan are a few of the countries that are taking the day off. In some countries, such as China, only women get the day off.
2. Give flowers to women.
Flowers are a symbol of International Women’s Day, and many countries celebrate by decorating with flowers, or giving them to women as presents. In Italy, yellow mimosas are popular. Russians give a variety of flowers, including red roses. In Hanoi, Vietnam, it’s not just boyfriends and husbands giving flowers to the women in their lives, but also bosses and colleagues.
3. Donate money to women’s causes.
In the U.S., micro-lending non-profits such as Kiva are campaigning to remind women to help women around the world by investing in their futures. Kiva.org/women will connect you to women who need loans, and skincare company Dermalogica is sponsoring 4,000 $25 loans for lenders who register today.

The entrance of the Colosseum and the Roman forum were free for women for International Women's Day, with actresses reading texts during a guided tour orientated on the female condition. (ANDREAS SOLARO - AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
4. Protest.
International Women’s Day was born of activism — the holiday was founded in 1910, when a German woman named Clara Zetkinproposed that every country devote a day to the needs and political demands of women. While in many countries, the holiday has taken on the sentimental status of days like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, women around the world use March 8 as an opportunity to fight for political freedom, equal pay and working rights, among other causes. The day was marked by protests in Turkey, Sri Lanka, and Palestine, among other countries.
5. Wear red lipstick.
A marketing agency is encouraging women across America to wear red lipstick in honor of International Women’s Day for the “Rock the Lips” campaign. Style Blog raised some questions yesterday about how effective this would be as an awareness-raiser for the cause of International Women’s Day (and about the agency’s plan to team up with a cosmetics brand) but women who want to celebrate femininity can submit photos of their pouts to the Rock the Lips Tumblr.

A socialist woman activist shouts slogans during a protest against the rising cost of living and violence against women in Colombo, Sri Lanka, marking International Women's day. (Gemunu Amarasinghe - AP)
6. Stand on a bridge.
“Join Me on the Bridge” is a campaign for women’s equality that started with Rwandan and Congolese women, who met on a bridge joining their two countries as a demonstration that women could build bridges of peace. This year, women will march on bridges in London, Boston, San Francisco, Toronto and New York for International Women’s Day.

Members of the alternative choir "Gaggle" prepare to take part in a 'Join Me On The Bridge' event on the Millennium Bridge in central London, on March 8, 2012, as they celebrate International Women's Day. (LEON NEAL - AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
7. Check out some art.
In Pakistan, theatrical performances, poetry readings, songs, films and a two-month long visual art show will be a part of the celebration. A friend living in Afghanistan reports that in her village, speeches and songs were performed, and the highlight was a play put on by some teenage boys “encouraging men to be thoughtful when marrying off their daughters.” In Washington D.C., it would be a good day to patronize the National Museum of Women in the Arts, currently featuring an exhibition by French female painters.
8. Eat a cupcake.
Free cupcakes for women at select bars and restaurants in the U.S. and England may seem great, but not all women are too happy about this one. Claire Melamed wrote about cupcake feminism for International Women’s Day: “Cupcakes are just so twee-ly, coyly, ‘ooh no I really shouldn’t'-ly, pink and fluffily, everything that I think feminism is not. It’s feminism-lite, feminism as consumption and ‘me time’ (grr), rather than feminism as power and politics and equal pay.”

Palestinian women hold posters of Hana Shalabi, a Palestinian prisoner jailed in Israel and who has been on hunger strike for 22 days to protest against the Israeli administrative detention, during a rally marking International Women's Day. (Adel Hana - AP)
9. Defeat sexual harassment.
British Prime Minister David Cameron signed a Council of Europe convention promising necessary legislative measures” against anyone committing “verbal, non-verbal or physical sexual harassment” in honor of International Women’ Day, Yahoo reports. The bill means that women can walk to work without having to worry about street harassment, which could range from stalking to wolf-whistling.
10. Look back — and forward.
We’ve come a long way since the first International Women’s Day more than 100 years ago, when women in America did not yet have the right to vote. But events of the last few weeks — as politics and women’s concerns about reproductive health have collided in the Virginia statehouse,on the campaign trail and among media personalities, such as Rush Limbaugh, who caused outrage with his remarks disparaging Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke — prove that there is still work to be done. That’s just in America. Around the world, women’s needs are even greater. International Women’s Day will show you how to help.

Tensions Raise Specter of Gas at $5 a Gallon

With no clear end to tensions with Iran and Syria and rising demand from countries like China, gas prices are already at record highs for the winter months — averaging $4.32 in California and $3.73 a gallon nationally on Wednesday, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. As summer approaches, demand for gasoline rises, typically pushing prices up around 20 cents a gallon.

And gas prices could rise another 50 cents a gallon or more, analysts say, if the diplomatic and economic standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions escalates into military conflict or there is some other major supply disruption.

“If we get some kind of explosion — like an Israeli attack or some local Iranian revolutionary guard decides to take matters in his own hands and attacks a tanker — than we’d see oil prices push up 20 to 25 percent higher and another 50 cents a gallon at the pump,” said Michael C. Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research.

For the typical driver who pumps 60 gallons a month of regular unleaded gasoline, a 50-cent increase in price means an extra expense of $30 a month.

The prospect of such a price increase underscores the political and economic risks that Western political leaders must contend with as they decide how to address the Iran situation. A sharp rise in the prices of oil and gas would crimp the nation’s budding economic recovery. It would also cause big political problems at home for President Obama, who is already being attacked by Republican presidential candidates over gas prices and his overall energy policies, and for European nations struggling to deal with the Continent’s debt crisis.

The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, told a House committee on Wednesday that rising global oil prices were “likely to push up inflation temporarily while reducing consumers’ purchasing power.” He maintained the Fed’s forecast that the nation’s economy would grow 2.2 to 2.7 percent this year.

The Iran situation has already raised the price of crude oil as much as 20 percent, according to oil experts. On Wednesday, the price of the benchmark American crude settled at $107.07 a barrel. That is about four dollars higher than on the same day in 2008. Later that year, oil and gasoline prices surged to new records, including a record nominal high of $145.29 a barrel for oil and $4.11 a gallon for gasoline in July. (In today’s dollars, that would be $150.87 for oil and $4.27 for gasoline.)

Although prices plunged late in 2008 as the financial crisis took its toll and the recession deepened, that kind of sharp increase could happen again as summer approaches.

“That’s what frightens people,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

That fear is tempered by optimism — if tensions ease in the Middle East, experts predict that energy prices will fall, with gasoline at the pump potentially dropping 50 cents a gallon or more because supplies are relatively strong in many parts of the country. Some analysts say the world price of oil could fall to $80 a barrel if tensions eased.

And there have been signs in recent days that Iran is feeling the pain of sanctions on its critical oil exports, perhaps increasing its willingness to negotiate with the West.

On Wednesday, Tehran offered Pakistan, which has been suffering power shortages, 80,000 barrels of oil a day on an easy payment plan. It also offered to accept gold rather than dollars for payment from any dealers hoping to get around the Western restrictions on the usual financial channels for buying oil.

And this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Congressional committee that the administration was working hard to persuade India, China and Turkey, which represent more than a third of Iran’s oil export market, to reduce their purchases.

While all three countries have said publicly that they will continue to buy from Iran, Mrs. Clinton said, “in a number of cases, both on their government side and on their business side, they are taking actions that go further and deeper than perhaps their public statements might lead you to believe.”

Neal Soss, chief economist of Credit Suisse, said sustained high gasoline prices would definitely have an impact on the American economy. “As a rule of thumb, a penny a gallon is worth a bit over $1 billion in consumer purchasing power if it is maintained a whole year. A dollar more would be something in excess of $100 billion, which is about the size of the Social Security tax cut.”

Despite a fall in gasoline demand in the United States and Europe, global oil markets are tightening because demand for energy from Asian countries, particularly China and India, is rising at surprisingly strong rates even as output is declining from several important producing countries.

Gasoline futures are surging, spurred in part by recent refinery closings that may produce a shortage of motor fuel in the Northeast states by summer.

Oil prices have surged about 8 percent since Iran threatened to cut off oil imports to France, Spain, Italy and other European countries three weeks ago as a pre-emptive move against Western moves to tighten sanctions. The European Union has decided to place an embargo on Iranian oil and ban shipping and insurance on its cargoes. Washington has decided on banking sanctions to curtail Iran’s ability to earn money from its oil exports.

Middle East experts express doubts that Iran will follow through on its threats to stop supplying European customers or close the vital oil sea lanes of the Strait of Hormuz. But the saber-rattling from both sides is encouraging investors to buy oil futures contracts at higher and higher prices. Rising conjecture that Israel could launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities has heightened market jitters.

“The bankers are speculating, protecting themselves from higher prices by committing obligations to buy now, and that starts the ball rolling toward higher prices,” said Sadad Ibrahim al-Husseini, former head of exploration and production at Saudi Aramco, the state oil company.

He added that the escalating civil turmoil in Syria, a crucial ally of Iran, “is bound to increase price volatility and that will drive future speculation.”

The Japanese Foreign Ministry signaled on Wednesday that it was close to an agreement with Washington to further reduce shipments of oil from Iran, which have already declined about 20 percent since the beginning of the year.

But any success in tightening sanctions on Iran could squeeze global oil supplies, pushing up prices and causing serious economic repercussions at home and abroad.

“It’s a bind for Obama,” said Mr. Kloza at the Oil Price Information Service. “How do you get tough on Iran without getting tough on American wallets?”