Palo Alto Traffic School

The Census Bureau estimates 67,609 residents in Palo Alto on July 1, 2025. US 101, Interstate 280, State Route 35 and State Route 82 all cross the city. State Route 82 is El Camino Real, a state highway that Caltrans owns and operates.

Tickets in Palo Alto come from two agencies. The Palo Alto Police Department patrols city streets, and its Traffic Team works to cut injuries and property damage by keeping pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle traffic safe and orderly. Posted speed limits in Palo Alto rest on engineering and traffic surveys by the city's Office of Transportation, which is what lets police use radar to enforce them. On the freeways, the California Highway Patrol's Redwood City, San Jose and Hollister-Gilroy Areas serve Santa Clara County. Tickets from both agencies go to Santa Clara County Superior Court under one set of traffic school rules.

The California Office of Traffic Safety's 2021 rankings count 251 people killed or injured in Palo Alto crashes, 62nd of 105 cities of similar size, where 1st is the worst result. Bicyclists fared far worse than the city overall. The 42 bicyclists killed or injured put Palo Alto 5th in its group. Pedestrians numbered 19, ranked 40th, and speed-related collisions that killed or hurt someone numbered 51, ranked 42nd. The figures describe the city's streets as a whole, not fault in any one driver's case.

The city's own numbers point the same way. Palo Alto's Safe Streets for All Safety Action Plan counts 1,132 injury crashes in the city from 2018 through 2022, and 361 of them involved a pedestrian or bicyclist. People walking and biking were part of 32 percent of those crashes but 24 of the 47 crashes that killed or seriously injured someone. The plan's High-Injury Network maps the corridors with a disproportionate share of those severe crashes, and El Camino Real has the highest share of crashes, 14 percent. The City Council adopted the plan in 2025, and it works toward a Vision Zero goal of 2035.

Santa Clara County Superior Court handles Palo Alto traffic tickets, though not in Palo Alto. Its courthouse at 270 Grant Avenue hears criminal cases only. A traffic ticket goes to the Family Justice Center Courthouse at 201 North First Street in San Jose or to the South County Morgan Hill Courthouse at 301 Diana Avenue in Morgan Hill, and you may use either one. Both answer traffic calls at (408) 556-3000. Whichever you use, give the court code printed on your citation.

Traffic school is something the court grants, and the courtesy notice is where it starts. Until your citation is in the court's system, you cannot pay it or sign up for traffic school. After that, the court mails a courtesy notice listing your options and a due date. Its bail schedule marks each offense as eligible for traffic school or not, and electing it adds a court fee for monitoring traffic violator schools, which the notice shows. You pay Mirai Traffic School's $24.99 separately. State law keeps the first traffic school conviction in any 18-month period confidential.

Mirai Traffic School reports your completion to the DMV electronically, and the court retrieves it from there. Only a DMV-licensed school's completion counts with this court. When the school has notified the court, the court says your part is done. Keep Mirai Traffic School's confirmation with your Palo Alto citation number until the court shows the case closed.