This is the story of my exploits as a “driver”! Since childhood, I was trained to everything on four wheels (or even three wheels!). Additionally, I was sent for a driver education program conducted in a high school. The program organizers were acquainted with climatic conditions in winter, and believed that people living in such places had to know how to drive in harsh conditions (ice, snow or sleet). With so much information at my fingertips, when I finally got a car of my own, I proved to be quite a good driver. I was extremely alert and quick, despite a love for speed! And in thirty one years, I have been hauled up by a policeman only thrice. The first time was when I was 16 and was speeding away during a curfew; the second time was in the 1980s since I had no seat belt (The policeman would not have noticed it if he had not pulled me over for not having a head lamp); and the third was when I skipped a red light all because I was in a hurry to reach home after having worked all 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.

Letting me off with a simple warning and a kind smile, the officer asked me to register for traffic school online. He had found out that I had received a traffic ticket about thirty years ago and felt that a re-education would do no harm!

This traffic school online had been a common point of conversation among friends for quite some time. What I had gathered was that by re-educating yourself about traffic rules, you could ensure that no further points were added to your driving record. The insurance rates which were going up all the time would not affect us then. Again, we would save money by not indulging in red light violations. While we had to shell out $107 in earlier days as fine amount, now it was a staggering $400!

I have started the research, and found that, logically, one should use an accredited traffic school online-one which is legitimate and will issue you the documentation you need to prove to the courts you have paid your penance. I have also found that traffic school online can be manageable, allowing you to study at your own pace and during the hours you are available; that traffic school online is cheap; and that traffic school online, if you search long enough, will appeal to your particular learning style-giving you games if you are a doer, text only if you prefer verbal instruction, and cartoons and short films if you are more of a visual learner.

I am hoping to complete my traffic school online in the next few days, and will either go with comedy or cartoons and games. They look promising and they hopefully will not humiliate me too much with road rules I learned 31 years ago and ace on every DMV test, etc., though once every decade “forget”. What a reminder.