I've wondered for a while if traffic violation fines would act as more of a deterrent and be more equitable if they took income into consideration. (Sometimes this thought comes when I see a Range Rover driving down the Missing Link bike path.)
I've had acquaintances who have so much money and so little understanding of negative consequences of their behavior that they viewed traffic fines -- speeding tickets, running through light, etc. -- as part of the cost of "fun" or "adventurous" driving. At the same time, I've known people who ended up losing their housing because of a traffic violation (e.g., failure to pay fine/appear in court led to a warrant led to arrest led to jail led to lost work time led to firing led to homelessness), which seems unjust even to a crazy wingnut like me. Then I ran across this article from the AP today: Swiss court fines speeding millionaire $290,000 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100107/ap_on_fe_st/eu_odd_switzerland_huge_speeding_fine So it looks like someone had my thought before I did. It would be interesting to find out the reasoning behind the Swiss law and whether it has affected driver behavior. Just to clarify, I'm not advocating this system because I don't know enough about it. It would be interesting to learn more.
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