One of the questions on the VA application for a REAL ID is this: Have you ever been found guilty of a crime other than parking violations?
The phrasing indicated to me that the government wanted any speeding or moving violations included. So I had to fess up. Yes, I am guilty of the most heinous of all moving violations: Evasion of a traffic control device.
Let me state for the record, your honor, that until I committed this infraction, I wasn’t even aware there was a law against it.
Several years ago I visited a friend who had recently moved. When we talked about how navigation had brought me to her home, she nodded and said there was a great shortcut that didn’t usually pop up because the road had just recently opened.
So when I left to return home, I took the shortcut. Unfortunately, traffic was backed up at the one traffic light in the town. Needing to turn right at the light, I saw I could cut through a small shopping area’s parking lot to reach the road. And I did just that.
Suddenly a police car with lights and siren was behind me. Figuring the officer was responding to an emergency and with no shoulder for me to move over onto, I turned right into a side street so he could get by. Uh, yep, he pulled in behind me.
Apparently, in the Commonwealth of Virginia, traffic code 46.2-833.1 states that, “It shall be unlawful for the driver of any motor vehicle to drive off the roadway and onto or across any public or private property in order to evade any stop sign, yield sign, traffic light, or other traffic control device.”
This moving violation cost me three points on my license.
Clearly, I didn’t intend to break the law. And now, with the REAL ID paperwork, it’s back to haunt me. I can only hope that my REAL ID (assuming I eventually obtain enough decades-old documentation to prove who I am) won’t identify me in some way as a violent offender.
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Read about the VA REAL ID in my Who Do You Think You Are? post from July 30, 2019
Virginia is one of several states that prohibits evading traffic control devices.
Norma,
So I’m sitting here laughing again!
The DMV does not have enough paper for my list of infractions!!!!!!!!!
I didn’t get the nickname “Parnelli Jones”for nothing!!!!
I think the easiest solution to the Real ID, is to not travel anymore!
Greg is trying to get another social security card, which is long gone, and he wound up getting a e-mail with pages of forms. The phone number listed, from the government site, is in a foreign language.
Unfortunately this same ridiculous exercise is not limited to the DMV. I went to Bank of America yesterday to close an account and move it to another bank. I had to see and present my BOA card and my drivers licence to 6 different people and had to sit and wait for the next inquisition. It took two hours for me, a “preferred customer” to achieve my intended purpose. I’ve been a customer for them since I was 18 years old. 53 YEARS!!!!!!! I PLAN ON RETURNING AND GET EVERY STINKING CENT OUT OF THERE!!!!! But I was in a hurry yesterday, and I would have done it then, but I needed to get home and check my blood pressure. After I calmed down and Greg got home, I shared the story with him and we were laughing hysterically.!!!!!!!!!
I think I’m too old to accept the DMV challenge. You are a Warrior <3
Maybe we should start attending this type of event together. When you’re trying to accomplish something, I can pretend to be your attorney. And you’ll be mine when it’s my turn to face the gauntlet. Between the two of us, they will be VERY AFRAID. Ha!
It never ceases to amaze me…the ridiculous laws that are ”on the books” for dumb reasons. Seems to me he should have given you an “atta-girl” award for decreasing the jammed-up line of traffic.
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I like the way you think!!
Tried to send this comment to the earlier Real ID post, but it would not work. So here I go again…
To all…if you have a passport, you do not need a Real ID. You can have both, but it is not necessary. Thought this might relieve any anxiety some of you may be experiencing. Norma, you might consider getting a passport to avoid all the searching. If you have an old expired one, that’s all you have to show to get a new one. I know this from my own experience, and my expired one was from 1970!!!
I have never had a passport, and with the way this is going, a REAL ID will now be required to obtain one!