The PDL senator Iulian Urban came up with – on paper – a sound idea last week:
Fines for driving offences should vary according to the income of the offender.
A sound idea indeed, although not entirely original: Finland has had a similar system in place for years. Other countries probably do too.
But think about it for more than two minutes and it falls apart, at least in a Romanian context.
Few Romanians have their full salary recorded in their cartea de munca. Though the low, flat rate of income tax introduced by the Tariceanu government in 2004 cut much tax evasion, high salary taxes mean that many employers still pay a part of staff salaries in cash, no questions asked, no payment recorded.
This means that those who should in theory receive far higher fines for traffic offences would in fact pay much the same as the poorest Romanians. This alone, in our book, makes Urban’s plan a non-starter. It also makes you think about what planet Romanian parliamentarians live on, or what country they think they live in. It isn’t Kansas. Or Finland.
We have a far simpler, and, we would add, more egalitarian solution: the value of the fine should to tied to the value or power of the offending vehicle. Those driving Dacias would pay less that the drivers of Bemves.
Alas, we can’t see such an idea catching on amongst Romania’s Bemve driving parliamentarians.
Indeed, before they go changing the current cod rutier (highway code), they might want to have the traffic police start enforcing the current one.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Some feedback requested on this “Police ” matter. The Romanian Driving Licence exam seems to be quite complicated and more difficult than say the system in the UK. I understand the reason why this is the case as there is a real need in this country to uplift the driving skills from the apalling “road craft” that I do see however the system is undermined by corruption at the Police compinent of the process enabling people who cannot drive for toffee to get a licence because they pay ( going price in Bucharest and rest of Romania being Euro 200) and the people who can drive but believe that paying is wrong but therefore not getting a licence. Thoughts anyone – or does anyone care?
Even Romanians with real licences drive like mad men. So many Romanian men believe that everyone else on the road is an awful driver but they are really brilliant so are allowed to drive like maniacs. Which kind of sums up the nation
Sure, I’m jmeker they’re stupid
)
Actually the price at Pitesti was 2000 Euro and it included both written and practical examinations because the system was thoroughly set.
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When I got my license, 7 years ago, the price was 100 USD and it only included practical examination because the written exam was a multiple choice and it was very hard to rig that.
So you needed to learn the legislation, pass the exam and when you were in the car with the policemen for the practical examination you would simply slip 100 USD to him together with your file and that was it. The combination was set up by your school instructor who knew in advance who was going to examine you.
Also, for some extra fee, the school instructor could set up your medical and psychological files without the need for you to be there. So actually with a tip to the instructor you could get almost full-service.
Not sure how much of these have changed, probably the practical examination can still be rigged, maybe the price has changed since then…
Gypsies were the first to buy their practical examination but their problem was that they could hardly read (not to mention learning) so they would end up taking their written exam 8-10 times in a row. Even if you’re stupid, if you see the same questions 10 times in a row you end up knowing the answer.
The rest of the Bucharest traffic is latin blood combined with access to second-hand German vehicles… priority given according to engine capacity
Yes, the Romanian driving test (the theory part at least) is very complicated. The driving bit tends to be a case of ‘drive 100 yards, pull over, give me 50 euros and you’ve passed.’
I was most of this week in Tbilisi. Romanians have nothing on Georgians. They are as indisciplined as Romanians, but do it all at much higher speeds. There are few traffic lights in central Tbilisi, no road markings and arriving back in Bucharest it felt all rather tame…
Similarly from trip to Cairo – no rules not even lights on at night required.
You can certainly get a driving license without paying, you just have to learn. I did it, my wife did it, and others…
Of course, you can also get a driving license just paying, but for all the talk of generalized corruption, I personally never learned how is done. For one, these things are not advertised, nobody asked me for a bribe.. so I guess you have to go from the start to THAT instructor that has The Connection with THAT cop… So basically you have to be already in the “corruption network”. Of course, if you really want is easy to “catch a thread” of this network… but it always seemed to me that is easier to go on the official path.
And all this talk about the traffic chaos in Romania/Bucharest being caused by the easiness of getting the driving license, for is me bullshit. The rules are simple, and I don’t know of any driver that was breaking the rules because it didn’t know them. The chaos is caused by the lack of infrastructure and police, and that’s all, give the Bucharest’s road conditions and police to any town in the west and you’ll see the same thing.
And about the fact that the rule will not be applied to some really rich and connected guys: yes, sure, but the same would happen with any rule in any other country. Rich and connected guys are not normal citizens. But the vast majority of the people (even rich people) are not “connected” and usually is just easier to just follow the rules, and they will follow it. At least this is my view based on my experiences and my “environment” as a Bucharestian. Of course, if you are born and raised in a Mafia family you find it hard to believe that other people are not mafiosi…
A lot of this talk about how everything and anybody is corrupted is just that: talk. I mean, is really more interesting to talk about corruption and mafiosi then about the UPC prices. Plus by talking a lot about corruption, dirt, and shit that happens in Romania, you as a Romanian try to transmit that you are not part of that dirt, you are clean because you see the dirt and talk about it. A shitty attitude, I know, but as the name implies it – it sticks. Plus, is easy to talk with a foreigner about corruption and Dracula because this are things he knows, so are really easy targets for a conversations…. My point: don’t take all this stuff so serious – we don’t.
Do you mean “Beemer” instead of Bemve ? The meaning is obvious but the term “Beemer” is the american-english equivalent instead of what I feel is a translation from Romanian. Great posting.
Peace
Yes, to confirm for those not initiated in the joys of Romanian fitze slang, Bemve is BMW.
I am here in the US for two weeks and it is a night and day difference after six months in Bucharest! No cars on sidewalks, no one notices you, I can take pictures! The police actually police!
And fines are actually fines that you need to pay
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That’s about the size of it, yes.
I carry in my wallet enough money to buy a car although officially I have no revenue.
They can fine me how much they want and wipe their ass with the fine after that because that’s all they can do.
And if they become a pain in the ass I’m gonna go to a poor African country and buy a drivers’ licence, multiply it in 100 copies and leave one whenever they want to suspend it.
And if they become even more pain in the ass I’m gonna register my car in Andorra.
And if they become even more pain in the ass I’m gonna buy citizenship and residence of another country so they can send the fines at my address.
I’m jmeker they’re stupid.
And what’s your God saying about that!
He made me jmeker. Fines represent earthly posessions, God doesn’t care about them, he wants something else from me.
“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” thus the son of God said. So basically by being jmeker with Caesar you’re jmeker with God.
But I guess He will tell you all about it when you meet.
Fines do not belong to the state, the money from my pocket belongs to me. It’s my right to be jmeker with the ones who are trying to be jmekeri with me.
good comeback
thumbs up.