Speeding tickets down to a fine art
Instead of inching my way to work along a jammed road, I found myself waiting outside a bank at 9 on a Monday morning.
Half an hour before that, I was in the police station, watching pictures of my car's license plate, from a computer screen.
The website of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau shows a record of my car exceeding the speed limit in January. I found this out recently because my car is due to go through the annual check-ups.
By check-up, I mean not just checking if the car's exhausts meet environmental standards. A car can only get a new sticker on the front window if the owner has purchased insurance, dealt with all traffic violation records and can provide other paperwork.
"The pictures are not clear," I said calmly. Reports say the cameras and other components in the traffic monitoring system could occasionally err.
The officer dressed in a handsome uniform said nothing but clicked the mouse. OK, it was my car, running at 90 km/hr where the limit was 80. It must have been a great day to drive, that road is usually congested.
"Clear enough?" he said. Sure. I signed two notices of punishment, then had 3 points deducted from my traffic card losing all 12 points in a year would bring me back to the driving school.
Even a dark cloud has its silver lining. Among the people waiting at the bank, two interesting grannies got my full attention.
Holding bags of soya bean milk and fresh vegetables, one granny wanted to buy electricity. But she didn't know how to do it with the ATM machine. The other lady, with painted eye brows, awed her audience with a lecture on when and how to choose the best funds from the stock market.
When the iron bars were rolled up, one granny rushed to a desk for funds; the other got a queue number and sat down.
Fifteen minutes clicked by and the No 1 customer still sat comfortably in front of the only open window. With the queue number 24 safe in my pocket, I wandered into a nearby store.
How time flies when you go shopping when you ought to be working! When I peeped into the bank again, it was my turn. I rushed through the crowds before the next number was called. I must have set a new speed limit for the bank. In 5 minutes, I had paid the 200-yuan ($25) fine.
Not bad, considering the nearly 400 yuan ($50) I paid for my first violation a few years ago. Nobody told me what to do, I presumed the money in my traffic card would be automatically transferred.
Imagine my surprise when an officer caught me parking near a bus station and said my first violation record hadn't been cleaned.
Waving goodbye to the grannies, I was on my way. But wouldn't you know it the road was jammed with cars, bumper to bumper. On the bright side though, I couldn't possibly exceed the speed limit in this traffic.
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(China Daily 04/11/2007 page20)
