The group Flex Your Rights has a new film. The premiere will be shown live on the web at: 10 Rules for Dealing with Police. I'm looking forward to it.
Their previous film is on YouTube - Busted: A Citizen's Guide to Police Encounters.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
How long does a ticket stay on your record in NY?
Speeding tickets and other traffic infractions that happen in New York will show up on a NY driving record. First of all, it only shows up on your record after you've been convicted (if you plead guilty to something or if you lose at trial). Second, in my experience they seem to stay on a record for about three-and-a-half years.
While researching something else today, I came across the definitive answer.
Vehicle & Traffic Law § 354 says that the driving record, or abstract, "shall include enumeration of any convictions of such person of a violation of any provision of any statute relating to the operation of a motor vehicle or any accidents in which a motor vehicle driven by such person has been involved during the current calendar year and the three calendar years preceding that in which the request for the operating record is received ...."
Translating from the legalese:
1. "enumeration of any convictions" - As I said above, it goes on your record when you get convicted, not when you get the ticket.
2. "violation of any provision of any statute" - This is interesting. In one court we handle tickets often get reduced to city code violations instead of state law violations. Does a city code traffic violation go on a driving record? I don't think a city ordinance is considered a statute (something to research perhaps). I've never seen one of these on a driving record.
3. "relating to the operation of a motor vehicle" - What relates to operation? In my experience, most VTL violations do show up on a driving record. The big exception is VTL 1201(a), commonly known as "parking on the pavement", though I've also heard it called "unattended vehicle." I've never seen those on a record. But a seatbelt violation does show up on a record. Does wearing or not wearing a seatbelt really relate to operation?
4. "during the current calendar year and the three calendar years preceding" - That's pretty close to about 3 1/2 years. If it's January of 2010, the record should include everything that happened in 2010 (only January) and the three years before that (07, 08, and 09), or just over three years. But if it's December of 2010, then it covers all of 2010 and the same three previous years, or nearly four years.
So here's a tip. This suggests the best time of year to shop for car insurance (if have a busy driving record) is January. That way the record will only show three years of your misconduct instead of four.
While researching something else today, I came across the definitive answer.
Vehicle & Traffic Law § 354 says that the driving record, or abstract, "shall include enumeration of any convictions of such person of a violation of any provision of any statute relating to the operation of a motor vehicle or any accidents in which a motor vehicle driven by such person has been involved during the current calendar year and the three calendar years preceding that in which the request for the operating record is received ...."
Translating from the legalese:
1. "enumeration of any convictions" - As I said above, it goes on your record when you get convicted, not when you get the ticket.
2. "violation of any provision of any statute" - This is interesting. In one court we handle tickets often get reduced to city code violations instead of state law violations. Does a city code traffic violation go on a driving record? I don't think a city ordinance is considered a statute (something to research perhaps). I've never seen one of these on a driving record.
3. "relating to the operation of a motor vehicle" - What relates to operation? In my experience, most VTL violations do show up on a driving record. The big exception is VTL 1201(a), commonly known as "parking on the pavement", though I've also heard it called "unattended vehicle." I've never seen those on a record. But a seatbelt violation does show up on a record. Does wearing or not wearing a seatbelt really relate to operation?
4. "during the current calendar year and the three calendar years preceding" - That's pretty close to about 3 1/2 years. If it's January of 2010, the record should include everything that happened in 2010 (only January) and the three years before that (07, 08, and 09), or just over three years. But if it's December of 2010, then it covers all of 2010 and the same three previous years, or nearly four years.
So here's a tip. This suggests the best time of year to shop for car insurance (if have a busy driving record) is January. That way the record will only show three years of your misconduct instead of four.
Friday, December 04, 2009
Adrian Peterson: Speeding and Knowing Your Speed
The hot traffic court story of the week is Vikings running back Adrian Peterson ticketed for going 109 mph in a 55 zone. See the story on ESPN.
My favorite quote from the story is this from Peterson: I need to be more aware of the speed I was going ....
I should add this to my speeding ticket excuses post, because I've heard it before. "I didn't realize I was going that fast."
Maybe this excuse makes sense when you're ticketed for 80 in a 55. But if you're going over 100 mph, you really should know. I had one guy ticketed for ... I'm not kidding ... 125 mph. He said he didn't realize he was going that fast.
Look, if you're going to drive at speeds that high, please be aware of what you're doing. While it may be dangerous to drive at such speeds in general, it's definitely more dangerous if you're not paying attention.
My favorite quote from the story is this from Peterson: I need to be more aware of the speed I was going ....
I should add this to my speeding ticket excuses post, because I've heard it before. "I didn't realize I was going that fast."
Maybe this excuse makes sense when you're ticketed for 80 in a 55. But if you're going over 100 mph, you really should know. I had one guy ticketed for ... I'm not kidding ... 125 mph. He said he didn't realize he was going that fast.
Look, if you're going to drive at speeds that high, please be aware of what you're doing. While it may be dangerous to drive at such speeds in general, it's definitely more dangerous if you're not paying attention.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Adsense Ads and Bounce Rate
Do AdSense ads increase the bounce rate?
I've heard concerns about AdSense making a site look spammy in the past, and saw the idea mentioned in this discussion about link building and advertising.
The concern some in the SEO community have is that webmasters will not want to link to sites that have ads on them. There are varied reasons discussed in the above forum. One that stands out to me looks like a myth:
keep in mind ... bounce rate and ... the presence of adsense ads. ... some users ... hit the back button on some sites with adsense.
That's an interesting theory. Bounce rate refers to the percentage of users who leave a site right after landing on it, as opposed to those who visit other pages of the site. Some people think a high bounce rate is a bad thing.
Well, I checked this theory on my Traffic Court website. We have AdSense ads in most states but not all.
Let's start with New York - it's our original and biggest state, and we generally do not use Google ads on the NY pages of the site. I ran Analytics for a set period of time. See the image below - I use the Content by Title display and have my page titles set up so that this is a good (though not perfect) way of catching all pages from a particular state.
The bounce rate for NY for this period was about 67%.
Similarly we have little or no Google ads in New Jersey, and the bounce rate is about 69%:
Now let's look at two states that do have a lot of Google ads. First, Texas:
The bounce rate for Texas is actually lower - 65%. And let's check California also:
The bounce rate for California is lower still, at 64%.
Since the page title method is imperfect, I also looked at the Analytics Map Overlay to compare bounce rates for visitors from different states. This is another imperfect measure, but it may be helpful. Click on the image to enlarge if you can't read it.
Again, NY and NJ, which have almost no AdSense ads, have higher bounce rates than visitors coming from other states that do have AdSense ads - here California and Pennsylvania.
Based on these results, it would seem that the presence of AdSense ads has a minimal impact on bounce rate, and if anything it lowers it.
I'd love to read comments from others about this. What do you think about the impact of AdSense ads on bounce rate? Can you supply any numbers from your own web stats that would shed more light?
I've heard concerns about AdSense making a site look spammy in the past, and saw the idea mentioned in this discussion about link building and advertising.
The concern some in the SEO community have is that webmasters will not want to link to sites that have ads on them. There are varied reasons discussed in the above forum. One that stands out to me looks like a myth:
keep in mind ... bounce rate and ... the presence of adsense ads. ... some users ... hit the back button on some sites with adsense.
That's an interesting theory. Bounce rate refers to the percentage of users who leave a site right after landing on it, as opposed to those who visit other pages of the site. Some people think a high bounce rate is a bad thing.
Well, I checked this theory on my Traffic Court website. We have AdSense ads in most states but not all.
Let's start with New York - it's our original and biggest state, and we generally do not use Google ads on the NY pages of the site. I ran Analytics for a set period of time. See the image below - I use the Content by Title display and have my page titles set up so that this is a good (though not perfect) way of catching all pages from a particular state.
The bounce rate for NY for this period was about 67%.
Similarly we have little or no Google ads in New Jersey, and the bounce rate is about 69%:
Now let's look at two states that do have a lot of Google ads. First, Texas:
The bounce rate for Texas is actually lower - 65%. And let's check California also:
The bounce rate for California is lower still, at 64%.
Since the page title method is imperfect, I also looked at the Analytics Map Overlay to compare bounce rates for visitors from different states. This is another imperfect measure, but it may be helpful. Click on the image to enlarge if you can't read it.
Again, NY and NJ, which have almost no AdSense ads, have higher bounce rates than visitors coming from other states that do have AdSense ads - here California and Pennsylvania.
Based on these results, it would seem that the presence of AdSense ads has a minimal impact on bounce rate, and if anything it lowers it.
I'd love to read comments from others about this. What do you think about the impact of AdSense ads on bounce rate? Can you supply any numbers from your own web stats that would shed more light?
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Traffic Lawyer Directory Statistics
Noticed an interesting set of statistics about our directory of traffic lawyers just now.
The image below shows the number of visits to the various pages within the directory. Click on the image to enlarge it. The stats are for the last October 21 to November 20.
Most interesting numbers:
a. 11,424 total pageviews and 7737 unique pageviews. As a rough guess, it looks like maybe 5000 people a month use the lawyer directory.
b. Nassau County District Court must be very busy. There were 175 unique pageviews for the lawyers page for that court.
c. Same for the Rancho Cucamonga Court - a Superior Court in San Bernardino County, California -- 131 unique pageviews.
d. The dropoff from those two courts is big. The Jersey City Court at 81 unique and Nassau County Traffic Court at 71 unique views. You can see that in the second image.
e. After the top, there's a strong middle class. Lots of courts getting lots of views. Among the top 25 are three courts in the Albany area with over 30 unique views each.
And the next image is specific to courts only. Again, click to enlarge:
Some observations:
1. County pages, in general, get more traffic than court pages.
The lawyer directory does not contain many court pages. The site is set up so that a court page is created only when a lawyer indicates in their profile that they handle that particular court. And yes, there is a reason I set it up that way.
You can see that "241 page titles were viewed" in the stats for courts. That probably means lawyers have indicated those 241 courts in their profiles, and maybe a few more that just didn't get any views.
Similarly, counties only appear in the directory when a lawyer has indicated she handles cases in that county.
2. There's a lot of people looking for lawyers on our site. I'm surprised more lawyers haven't signed up for the directory. With all the web sites out there drilling lawyers for big money to be on their sites, you'd think a free opportunity would be attractive.
You lawyers know which courts are busy in your area. Sign up for the site and list yourself for the busy courts around you. We have one lawyer in all of Pennsylvania, and the state is one of the top states on our site. No one has listed themselves in the Philadelphia area even though two of those court pages get a lot of visits.
Lawyers can register on the traffic lawyers registration page.
The image below shows the number of visits to the various pages within the directory. Click on the image to enlarge it. The stats are for the last October 21 to November 20.
Most interesting numbers:
a. 11,424 total pageviews and 7737 unique pageviews. As a rough guess, it looks like maybe 5000 people a month use the lawyer directory.
b. Nassau County District Court must be very busy. There were 175 unique pageviews for the lawyers page for that court.
c. Same for the Rancho Cucamonga Court - a Superior Court in San Bernardino County, California -- 131 unique pageviews.
d. The dropoff from those two courts is big. The Jersey City Court at 81 unique and Nassau County Traffic Court at 71 unique views. You can see that in the second image.
e. After the top, there's a strong middle class. Lots of courts getting lots of views. Among the top 25 are three courts in the Albany area with over 30 unique views each.
And the next image is specific to courts only. Again, click to enlarge:
Some observations:
1. County pages, in general, get more traffic than court pages.
The lawyer directory does not contain many court pages. The site is set up so that a court page is created only when a lawyer indicates in their profile that they handle that particular court. And yes, there is a reason I set it up that way.
You can see that "241 page titles were viewed" in the stats for courts. That probably means lawyers have indicated those 241 courts in their profiles, and maybe a few more that just didn't get any views.
Similarly, counties only appear in the directory when a lawyer has indicated she handles cases in that county.
2. There's a lot of people looking for lawyers on our site. I'm surprised more lawyers haven't signed up for the directory. With all the web sites out there drilling lawyers for big money to be on their sites, you'd think a free opportunity would be attractive.
You lawyers know which courts are busy in your area. Sign up for the site and list yourself for the busy courts around you. We have one lawyer in all of Pennsylvania, and the state is one of the top states on our site. No one has listed themselves in the Philadelphia area even though two of those court pages get a lot of visits.
Lawyers can register on the traffic lawyers registration page.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Texas speeding and traffic fines and points
Searching the web for something else, we came across the image below. It describes the fine and point schedule for Texas traffic tickets. If you click on it, it should enlarge.
Looks like on the high end, it's almost $500 for a very high speed in a work zone with workers present. On the low end, a low speed is $158.
As for points, most violations appear to be either zero or two points. If you have a low enough speed (like 71 in a 65), that's no points. And they have a surcharge if you get 6 or more points, starting at $100.
Altogether the fine and point system seems both simpler and gentler than here. In NY a high speed (31+ over) has a fine up to $85, plus an assessment of $450 or more.
This is also useful information for Texas drivers who get NY tickets. When we negotiate deals for you, we know what deals will give you points and what won't.
We finished our Texas Traffic Court directory a while ago. Some of the busiest courts we see from our site are:
Houston Municipal Court
Humble Municipal Court
Pasadena Municipal Court
San Antonio Municipal Court
Looks like on the high end, it's almost $500 for a very high speed in a work zone with workers present. On the low end, a low speed is $158.
As for points, most violations appear to be either zero or two points. If you have a low enough speed (like 71 in a 65), that's no points. And they have a surcharge if you get 6 or more points, starting at $100.
Altogether the fine and point system seems both simpler and gentler than here. In NY a high speed (31+ over) has a fine up to $85, plus an assessment of $450 or more.
This is also useful information for Texas drivers who get NY tickets. When we negotiate deals for you, we know what deals will give you points and what won't.
We finished our Texas Traffic Court directory a while ago. Some of the busiest courts we see from our site are:
Houston Municipal Court
Humble Municipal Court
Pasadena Municipal Court
San Antonio Municipal Court
Out-of-state tickets and Massachussetts drivers
Prospective clients frequently ask how their NY ticket will affect them in their home state. Since it's next door, we get this question a lot from Massachusetts drivers. One of the best places to get the answer to this question is your state's DMV. In Massachusetts it is known as the RMV - Registry of Motor Vehicles.
This post is about Massachusetts, but for a more general discussion, see my Do Points Transfer post.
The RMV says that out-of-state tickets will count against you. It's in Chapter 2 of the RMV Drivers Manual (a pdf file). Here are some quotes from that:
Out-of-State Violations
Certain traffic offenses you have committed in other states will be placed on your driving record and treated by the RMV as if they had occurred in Massachusetts.
... [O]ut-of-state violations count toward possible license suspension and automobile insurance surcharges. ...
[T]hese offenses will be treated as if they occurred in [MA] if they are a “like” offense. ... RMV will look at what conduct the other state's law prohibits ....
RMV [will] apply Massachusetts license suspension rules to any [such] out-of-state violations ....
A lot of states follow this approach. One reason to hire our firm is that we look at your state's rules to see what reductions would have the lowest impact in your home state. Then we use that information in negotiating a deal for you. This is important. One of the most common reductions for simple tickets in NY is actually worse than a low speed for drivers in some states, such as NJ and FL.
For those interested in MA, see my post about Massachusetts Traffic Court.
This post is about Massachusetts, but for a more general discussion, see my Do Points Transfer post.
The RMV says that out-of-state tickets will count against you. It's in Chapter 2 of the RMV Drivers Manual (a pdf file). Here are some quotes from that:
Out-of-State Violations
Certain traffic offenses you have committed in other states will be placed on your driving record and treated by the RMV as if they had occurred in Massachusetts.
... [O]ut-of-state violations count toward possible license suspension and automobile insurance surcharges. ...
[T]hese offenses will be treated as if they occurred in [MA] if they are a “like” offense. ... RMV will look at what conduct the other state's law prohibits ....
RMV [will] apply Massachusetts license suspension rules to any [such] out-of-state violations ....
A lot of states follow this approach. One reason to hire our firm is that we look at your state's rules to see what reductions would have the lowest impact in your home state. Then we use that information in negotiating a deal for you. This is important. One of the most common reductions for simple tickets in NY is actually worse than a low speed for drivers in some states, such as NJ and FL.
For those interested in MA, see my post about Massachusetts Traffic Court.
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