Novato Traffic School

The Census Bureau estimates 51,947 residents in Novato on July 1, 2025. US 101 runs the length of the city and State Route 37 also crosses it, while Novato Boulevard and Redwood Boulevard carry much of the local driving between neighborhoods, downtown and the freeway.

Tickets in Novato come from two agencies. The Novato Police Department patrols city streets such as Novato Boulevard and Redwood Boulevard. The California Highway Patrol's Marin Area serves Marin, San Francisco, Sonoma and Contra Costa counties and covers the state highways through Novato, US 101 and State Route 37 among them. Both agencies send adult tickets to Marin County Superior Court, which applies one set of traffic school rules to each.

The California Office of Traffic Safety's 2023 rankings count 134 people killed or injured in Novato crashes, 68th of 103 cities of similar size, where 1st is the worst result. The same table lists 17 pedestrians killed or injured, 34th in the group, and 14 bicyclists, 38th. Speed-related crashes that killed or hurt someone numbered 33 and ranked 24th, a worse place than the city's overall total. These counts describe Novato's roads as a whole, not fault in any one driver's case.

Novato's Traffic Engineering section answers traffic requests, runs and maintains the traffic signal and street light systems, and studies how cars, bicycles and people on foot move through the city. The Engineering Division also runs Safe Routes to Schools. Its Citywide Crosswalk Enhancements project covers new crosswalk and traffic calming measures at about 35 locations, with bulb-outs, high-visibility signs and markings and pedestrian warning signals, and most of the money comes from the Transportation Authority of Marin's Measure AA.

Adult traffic tickets from Novato go to Marin County Superior Court, which hears traffic in one building, the Hall of Justice at the Marin County Civic Center, 3501 Civic Center Drive in San Rafael. The DMV lists one traffic code for the court, 21420, and a clerk in the Traffic Clerk's Office answers at (415) 444-7180. The court can resolve only citations written in Marin County, so a ticket from just over the county line in Petaluma belongs to a different court.

Traffic school is something you ask the court for. Marin County Superior Court charges its own non-refundable administrative fee on top of the bail, and your courtesy notice shows the bail and whether your ticket qualifies. Mirai Traffic School's course is a separate $24.99. The court asks for a valid California driver's license, no traffic school assigned or attended in the last 18 months, an infraction the DMV records, no required court appearance, and speed no more than 25 mph over the limit. A commercial license holder qualifies only when the ticket came in a non-commercial vehicle, and some serious violations are excluded.

Mirai Traffic School reports your completion to the DMV electronically, and the court retrieves it from there. The court sets the date to finish, and its online system lists traffic school due dates. A course left unfinished by that date is reported to the DMV as a conviction, so check that your name, license number and court code 21420 match while there is still time to fix a mistake.