Walking and the DMV

Crossing the street in downtown Los Angeles one day I looked up to see the blinking red hand on the sign post across the way. I quickened my pace. There was a man in front of me and, I noticed, a women in navy shorts, navy polo top, and a bicycle helmet on the corner of the side walk facing us frantically waving her hands. I assumed she was gesturing to the man in front of me. As I reached the other side of the street the lady, who I now realized was a bicycle cop, asked me and the man in front of me to "please stand to the side." Another officer told her that he would take care of me. I was very confused and asked what was going on. The similarly clad male officer explained that I was getting a ticket for crossing the street on a steady hand. I corrected him, saying that it was a blinking hand and asked if he could explain. Apparently it's fine-able offense to cross the street in LA when the walking man symbol was not activated on the cross walk sign.

I was in shock. I decided that instead of paying the fine, which I couldn't afford, I would go to court and plead my case. - I was new to LA and had no way of knowing that I had done something wrong. A week later I got a notice in the mail that my offense would be erased if I paid $123. When I went on line to make my court date the first available one was six months away. I chose the date and went on about my life. The morning of the scheduled date I woke up late and proceeded to get myelf lost on the way to the courthouse. "Fine" I thought, "Los Angeles 123, Darren zero." Two days later I received noticed of my failure to appear and was told my driver's license would be suspended if I didn't pay the now $626 fee within ten days. Panicked I went on line to discover that the fee was actually $426, but that I would indeed have to pay or I would lose my driving privileges for crossing the street (ON FOOT) on a blinking hand. Fearing the snowball effect I rearranged my budget, leaving several bills unpaid and paid the fine immediately and assumed all was well. But two days later I received another notice in the mail saying that I owed $808 for the offense. As I've sought council from the few LA denizens I am acquainted with, I was repeatedly told not to fuck with the DMV. There seems to be no way to fight the Byzantine-like contraption of laws and fines and the more brief one's contact is with the system the better one seems to fare.

My contact has not been brief. Since paying the "walking" ticket I have received no less than ten tickets for parking and expired registration - all within the first 12 months of having a registered car in Los Angeles. Don't get me started about he registration, which hadn't expired and which ended up costing another $600.

Car culture (in its current form) is not only bad for the environment, its incredibly taxing for low income citizens. If I could ride my bike I would, but bike riding in this city is even more dangerous than crossing the street against the light.

I walk now whenever I can and find that even alone at the corner of an empty intersection, I cannot bring myself to cross the street until the electronic sign has let me know I can do so for free.