Lafayette Traffic School

The Census Bureau puts Lafayette at 25,313 residents on July 1, 2025, on about 15 square miles of land. State Route 24 crosses the city on its way from Orinda to Interstate 680 in Walnut Creek, with Lafayette exits at Acalanes Road, Oak Hill Road in central Lafayette, and Pleasant Hill Road. At the Pleasant Hill Road interchange the ramps are free flowing, so cars never have to stop or slow down, and flashing beacon crossings at those ramps were switched on by September 2025.

Tickets in Lafayette come from two agencies. The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office patrols the city's streets under a contract with Lafayette, working as the Lafayette Police Department. Those officers wrote 2,088 traffic citations in 2025, up from 1,499 in 2024, while reported collisions fell for a third straight year, from 125 to 94. The California Highway Patrol's Contra Costa Area, Dublin Area, Marin Area and Oakland Area serve Contra Costa County, and the Highway Patrol handles State Route 24.

The California Office of Traffic Safety's 2023 rankings list 7 people killed or injured in Lafayette, 91st of 93 cities with 25,001 to 50,000 residents, where 1st is the worst. That count leaves out any crash report the Highway Patrol takes on a road it shares with the city, so Lafayette's own safety plan gives the fuller local picture.

The City Council adopted a Vision Zero policy unanimously in November 2021, and in August 2023 it adopted a Local Road Safety Plan aimed at no traffic deaths or serious injuries by 2033. The plan studied 47 reported injury crashes on city roads from 2017 through 2021, 14 of which killed or seriously injured someone, and it left State Route 24 and its interchanges out because Caltrans runs them. Failure to yield was the violation reported most often in those serious crashes, 29 percent. Pleasant Hill Road had 11 of the 16 single-vehicle crashes, and streets posted at 35 mph saw 49 percent of all crashes.

Lafayette has no courthouse. Contra Costa County Superior Court's page for the Walnut Creek Juvenile and Traffic Center, at 640 Ygnacio Valley Road, lists Lafayette among the communities its traffic court serves. That building holds traffic trials and arraignments under DMV court code 07480, and the court answers at (925) 608-1000. Traffic cases are assigned by where the citation was issued, and the reminder notice the court mails names your courthouse.

Traffic school is a request to the court, and the courtesy notice it mails says whether you qualify. The court collects the fine and a traffic school fee of its own, with the amounts and a due date on that notice, while Mirai Traffic School's course is a separate $24.99. In Contra Costa you may attend if you hold a valid California license and have not attended traffic school in California in the past 18 months, measured from violation date to violation date. The decision belongs to the court.

Mirai Traffic School reports your completion to the DMV electronically, and the court retrieves it from there. Contra Costa still leaves it to you to confirm the certificate arrived, so check your Lafayette case before the due date. A finished course keeps one conviction in any 18-month period confidential and off your driving record.