San Jose Traffic School

The Census Bureau estimates 989,814 residents in San Jose on July 1, 2025. The police department counts nearly 2,300 miles of roadway and more than 16,000 intersections in the city. Ten state highways cross it: Interstates 280, 680 and 880, US 101 and State Routes 17, 82, 85, 87, 130 and 237.

Tickets in San Jose come from two agencies. On city streets it is the San Jose Police Department, whose patrol arm, the Bureau of Field Operations, provides for the safe movement of vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The motorcycle officers of its Traffic Enforcement Unit concentrate on the parts of the city with the highest collision rates and enforce speed limits with laser and radar devices. On the freeways, the California Highway Patrol's San Jose, Redwood City and Hollister-Gilroy Areas serve Santa Clara County. A ticket from either agency goes to Santa Clara County Superior Court, where the traffic school rules do not depend on who wrote it.

The California Office of Traffic Safety's 2023 rankings count 3,294 people killed or injured in San Jose crashes, 11th of 15 cities of similar size, where 1st is the worst result. Bicycling was the city's weakest category, with 251 bicyclists killed or injured, ranked 7th. Speed-related collisions that killed or hurt someone numbered 642, ranked 9th, and 314 pedestrians were killed or injured, ranked 11th. The rankings compare large cities with each other and say nothing about fault in any one case.

In 2015, San Jose became the fourth city in the United States to adopt a Vision Zero goal. The city now aims to cut the number of people killed and severely injured in crashes by 30 percent by 2030 and to end fatal and severe-injury crashes by 2040. Its Priority Safety Corridors are the major streets where a disproportionately high number of traffic deaths and severe injuries have occurred, and 46 percent of crashes that kill or severely injure someone happen on them. Police answer neighborhood traffic complaints through the Neighborhood Enforcement program and choose where to work by the number of complaints and the danger to residents and schools.

Santa Clara County Superior Court takes traffic tickets at two courthouses, and one of them is in San Jose. The Family Justice Center Courthouse stands at 201 North First Street, and the South County Morgan Hill Courthouse at 301 Diana Avenue in Morgan Hill. You can use either, and the traffic line for both is (408) 556-3000. The court's Santa Clara Courthouse at 1095 Homestead Road is temporarily closed, with its services moved to South County, so an older page that sends San Jose tickets there is out of date. Use the court code printed on your citation.

The court decides on traffic school, starting from the courtesy notice. You cannot pay a citation or sign up for traffic school until the citation reaches the court's system. Once it does, the court mails a courtesy notice that sets out your options and a due date. The bail schedule shows for each offense whether traffic school is allowed, and choosing it adds a court fee for monitoring traffic violator schools, printed on the notice. Mirai Traffic School's $24.99 is billed on its own. Under state law, one traffic school conviction in any 18-month period is kept confidential.

Mirai Traffic School reports your completion to the DMV electronically, and the court retrieves it from there. The court will not accept proof of completion from a school without a DMV license, and after the school notifies it, the court says you have nothing more to do. Hold on to Mirai Traffic School's confirmation and your San Jose citation until the court's record shows the case closed.