Mar 05 2005
Traffic violations in Houston
Well on the way to one of our favourite bars tonight (The Copa Room) we took the usual shortcut of turning left onto Brazos from Elgin even though recently we had stopped doing so due to fear of getting a ticket (there is a no left turn sign there for some reason) and well there was something like 3 police cars there booking people. 3 police cars dedicated to booking people that are safely turning onto a street just because there is a sign there saying not to do it hence making it illegal, haven’t the police in Houston got anything else better to do like to fight actual crime? If I see one more Houston cop directing traffic for a friggin parking garage I’m going to scream (yes I know they do this privately but they still wear their uniform and their gun for crying out loud, how in the heck do they ever get away with that???).
Anyway the main point of this rant is the way they issue tickets for moving violations here, they don’t actually give you a fine but instead a court date so if you like you can show up to contest it or you can go into the court and pay the fine. Like WTF? Just give a damn fine so it can be paid online or over the phone and then if someone wants to contest it then they can take it to court.
I really wonder sometimes how Houston manages to exist with the level of stupidity that is present in this city…