San Francisco Traffic School

The Census Bureau estimates 826,079 people in San Francisco on July 1, 2025. Six state routes run inside the city: US 101, Interstate 80, Interstate 280, State Route 1, State Route 35 and State Route 82. Interstate 80 enters from the East Bay over the Bay Bridge.

Two agencies write most tickets here. The San Francisco Police Department patrols city streets. The California Highway Patrol's San Francisco Area covers the state highways, and its jurisdiction begins at the toll plaza at the east end of the Bay Bridge and runs across the bridge and through the city. Tickets from both go to San Francisco County Superior Court. Parking tickets are different. The court does not handle them, and they go to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

San Francisco sits in the Office of Traffic Safety's group of the 15 largest cities. In the 2023 rankings, 3,505 people were killed or injured in its crashes, 9th of 15, where 1st is the worst result. The city ranked 1st in the group for pedestrian victims, 648, for pedestrians 65 and older, 124, for bicyclists, 397, and for motorcyclists, 406. Speed-related fatal and injury collisions numbered 486, ranked 8th, and police made 255 DUI arrests, ranked 1st. These counts describe the city as a whole, not fault in any one case.

The city adopted Vision Zero in 2014. SFMTA links police crash reports with hospital trauma data to map a High Injury Network, the 12 percent of streets where 68 percent of severe and fatal crashes happen. Since Vision Zero began, the agency has completed more than 13,000 safety treatments, from signals and signs to traffic calming, pedestrian improvements and road diets. With pedestrians and bicyclists hurt this often, the city's streets reward slow, careful driving.

San Francisco County Superior Court splits adult traffic between two buildings. The Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant Street holds the traffic windows, which handle services only, and its Traffic Division answers at (415) 551-8540. Hearings and trials take place at the Civic Center Courthouse, 400 McAllister Street, on the corner of Polk Street, whose Traffic Division line is (415) 551-8550. The court's single adult traffic code on the DMV list is 38460.

The court decides who gets traffic school. The violation must be an eligible Vehicle Code infraction carrying no more than one DMV point, with nothing tied to alcohol or drugs and a speed no more than 25 mph over the limit, and you must not have attended traffic school in the past 18 months. You pay the full bail and a non-refundable administrative fee and select the traffic school option as you pay. The reminder notice and the court's traffic school page show the amounts. Mirai Traffic School's course is a separate $24.99.

The court counts your time to finish from the day you pay, and its traffic school page states it. The clerk does not give extensions to complete traffic school, so start early. Mirai Traffic School reports your completion to the DMV electronically, and the court retrieves it from there. The court accepts it only after the bail and the fee are paid.