Photo: alicegop
A couple weeks ago, I became briefly fascinated and somewhat appalled by the appearance of a new Internet business that offered a sort of insurance against speeding tickets. In return for an annual fee of $169, ticketfree.org promised to reimburse you for the costs of up to $500 in moving violations. Its webpage enthused:
We don
You take as a given that eliminating speeding is a good thing which many people disagree with. Rather it's just an tradeoff question which different parameters in different places. If I could get insurance in Oregon against the risk of being required to drive 65 on roads that are safe for 80 that's very different from getting insurance to drive 40 through a residential zone in Salt Lake.
ResponderEliminarFurther, I believe speeding is not "criminalized" any where any more as a way around needing to have rights for the accused.
"Also excluded are acts or omissions performed in the commission of any crime under the laws of any jurisdiction"
ResponderEliminarWell, isn't speeding a crime under the laws of any jurisdiction?
"they were reducing the marginal cost of speeding and hence exposing the general public to more dangerous driving behavior"
ResponderEliminarYou can keep repeating this, but it will not make it true.
Scam!
ResponderEliminarMorality aside, that website was definitely attempting to con people. Looks like you chased them away. A search of domain ownership reveals an address in Portugal, which has been linked to a number of other illegitimate sites.
To never have responsibility for your actions and the repercussions is to live DANGEROUSLY.
ResponderEliminarHow long before a client kills himself or others going too fast through a trecherous road in blinding weather? Pain is a good thing...it gives us needed feedback.
@peterg Speeding isn't a crime. It's a violation or citation. Crimes are committed against either person or property.
ResponderEliminarIf you can make the argument stick that the act of speeding is a crime against the government's road, quickly go to law school...
I'm not looking for free swag...just simply stating that register.com, which controls the domaindiscreet.com servers, likely shut down the site due to a violation of its service agreement.
ResponderEliminarRecently I met with a business client whose product I sell. When a customer Googles THEIR product, my website comes up first. They have trouble getting on the first Google page (A BIG problem). They asked me why...."it's that LIDAR ticket download", I told them.
ResponderEliminarMy website is top-rated by Google because of the PDF downloads of "How I beat a LIDAR speeding ticket ".
You are all welcome to it:
periheliondesign.com/downloads/speeding_ticket.pdf
Even if it wasn't a scam, I'd expect this company to go out of business very quickly. One or two tickets a year per customer would render them profitless, and the customers that gravitate to them will be serial offenders.
ResponderEliminarTicketFree Canada is still live (address says Edmonton, AB) - ticketfree01.businesscatalyst.com/home
ResponderEliminarThink it was a scheme to increase the value of the domain?
Their phone (1-866-744-0524) makes you wait a few minutes, then goes to voice mail.
ResponderEliminar@Will, you wrote Speeding isn
ResponderEliminar@7
ResponderEliminar"Pain is needed feedback" that occurs when I exceed the performance limits of my vehicle, and wrap it around a tree or ride it rubber-side-up through a curve.
I fail to see how adding to someone's municipal budget because I'm going faster than they would *like* me to go is at all neccessary for me.
On average, the insurance company is the winner -- as they always are.
ResponderEliminarThey are not concerned about anything other than profit and lose.
the chance of losing a drivers license or increased auto insurance is much more of a liability than the cost of a simple speeding ticket. Your driving record also is taken into account for many other things. For example if you are buying life insurance you could get less preferred rates based on the # of moving violations you have had in the last 5 years.
ResponderEliminarHello everyone, this is Dave from Ticketfree.
ResponderEliminarIt's great to see dialogue on our product, and I want to thank Mr. Ayres in particular for taking the time to give his take on our business model. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.
I'd like to also clarify our Whois information and also our temporary removal of the website files. There is no conspiracy
GunClinginPennsylvania,
ResponderEliminarThe negative feedback isn't to protect you, it's for the tree (which could just as easily be another person).
I am with AJ, "For a fee, they were reducing the marginal cost of speeding and hence exposing the general public to more dangerous driving behavior."
ResponderEliminarThere seemed to be a quick leap of logic here.
Should we instead promote a race to the bottom to the perfect amount of danger? Would it be safer to reduce the limit further? We know if everyone were required to walk or ride bicylces, there would be zero auto accicents. So, what, exactly, is the process for establishing the "acceptable" safe speed? Is it at all related to the need to fatten a strapped municipal's coffers? Sure seems so in some towns.
Damn, did the guy from Ticketfree.org win the swag? Unfair! :)
ResponderEliminar"I fail to see how adding to someone
ResponderEliminarHuman ingenuity knows no bounds. More than 30 years ago a company in a crowded city in the developing world offered to pay fines for ticketless travel by commuters in public transportation for a small annual fee.......it still exists.
ResponderEliminarWhat keeps me from speeding is not the fear of fines, but the fear of addition of points to my record and subsequent rise in insurance rates
ResponderEliminar"The law traditionally prohibits insurance for intentional wrong doing."
ResponderEliminarWhy is that even needed? If the law already handles the wrong doing, than insurance of intentional wrong doing is simply not a viable business.
Incredible.
ResponderEliminarTwo thoughts:
1. Is there a way that a more complex version of this could work, as an application of the Coase Theorem? Speeding drivers could get a light signalling to police that they're paying the marginal costs of their speeding.
Speeding tickets seem like quite a blunt instrument for pricing traffic externalities. Perhaps in the future we could expect voluntary GPS-based traffic fines, for those routinely in a huge hurry (eg ER doctors).
2. Even usual liability or first-party personal injury insurance (one of which is now *required* in 49 states) has really ugly moral hazard effects.
Evidence suggests that no-fault laws and compulsory insurance laws increase traffic fatalities (eg Cohen & Dehejia 2006).
Is the availability of liability insurance welfare-enhancing, then? I'm not sure, but it does seem likely to me that the current rate of traffic fatalities is still somewhat above optimum.
In a world where overconsumption of gasoline has negative geopolitical and environmental impacts, it would be appalling to let consumers buy gasoline insurance that let them drive as much as they want at a subsidized price.
ResponderEliminarYou mean we don't?
Are there no futures markets?
The author of this article is a schmuck, he talked about a previous case in which he defended Acme Car Rental. Guess what, I looked at the case, and he LOST!
ResponderEliminarHere is the article: writ.news.findlaw.com/ramasastry/20050823.html
This is why I think this business is a good idea, for reasons like this in the article!