[brps]

As a resident of North County this rings very true. I had a crack in my window. Several hundred to repair that I did not have. Worked part time minimum wage while in college. Need my car to get to work and school. Registration renewal came up. I could not get it renewed because I had a cracked window. Over the next few months going to work to make money to fix my window so I can renew my plates, I get five tickets from three jurisdictions. Then proceed to get a warrant because I lost track off all my ticket court dates and missed one. Get arrested, and finally have to beg my parents for the couple thousand I needed to get out of jail, pay off my warrant, pay my court costs, pay my tickets, fix my window and get my registration up to date. I am white and luckily have middle class parents to fall back on.

[gizmo686]

One of the biggest gifts my parents gave me was the instructions "if you run unexpected trouble and need money, come to us immidietly". Fourtuantly, I have not had to take them up on this, but this type of safety net would prevent a relativly minor cost (like a broken window) from spiraling like it did in your case (as well as allow me to take more risk by having less in savings to pay off debt faster).

Of course, this 'advice' only works if you are coming from an upper/middle class family...

[mikeash]

What strikes me about this article and your story is that the cost of operating a car safely and legally can be much greater than the bare minimum cost of just operating a car in general. But enforcement of that extra cost is random, leading a lot of people who can't really afford a car (like in your case) to keep operating one anyway, because they really need it.

Seems like the problem needs to be attacked from both ends. First, better enforcement to make it clear that you can't keep driving around without a registration, rather than making it look like a gamble each time. Second, better public transportation so that a car is less of a necessity, to give options to those who can't afford to operate one safely.

As it is, we're putting people in a situation where they need a car to survive, can't afford to operate one safely and legally, and then randomly and capriciously punish them for it.