San Diego traffic schools online are not all created equal. There are some very high quality courses and some very low quality ones, too. The trick is to find the best San Diego approved online traffic school for the best price. If you go with the $5 traffic schools, expect problems. If you go with the $75 traffic schools, expect to feel ripped off.
One thing is certain… San Diego traffic school courses, even those online, are extremely boring. It doesn’t matter if you take a text based traffic school or a video based course, chances are you’re being forced to do this and you’re not going to like it. Nobody ever said learning about traffic laws is fun.
As a certified driving instructor, I have a lot of experience with the companies that supply online driver training courses including online traffic schools. Some of the online traffic schools you’ll find in San Diego are run by people from foreign countries while others are run by individuals out of their homes. Then, there are the online traffic schools that are actually based in the state of California and run by legitimate companies with established reputations.
As a San Diego resident myself (ok, fine, I actually live in Alpine but close enough), these below courses are the ONLY 3 online traffic school courses I would consider in San Diego. Depending on your specific learning style, one course may be better than another, so I’ll get into the differences between them. As long as you sign up for one of these below online traffic schools, you’ll be good to go.
iDriveSafely
iDriveSafely is based just outside of San Diego in Escondido. I’ve actually taken a personal tour of their office building and saw first hand their 24/7/365 operation. This online traffic school has a fantastic reputation including an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. They also offer the course in multiple formats.
You can use the text only course which is the cheapest option, you can have a “read along” option that functions like an audiobook (you can read along with it), or you can use their video based traffic school.
They also offer the course in a mobile / tablet friendly version so you can literally take the entire course from your iPhone (or any other smartphone / tablet) if you want to. Better yet? This is the FASTEST course allowed by San Diego court requirements. In fact, there are no course timers! You can blow through this thing as quickly as you can pass the quizzes. If I were to sign up for traffic school today, this is the one I’d choose.
Improv Traffic School
Here’s another company that is based out of California. This is the same company that owns the nationwide chain of Improv Comedy Clubs. In short, they gathered up a bunch of their Hollywood comedians and had them put together an online traffic school course based on humor. As mentioned above, traffic school is boring no matter what, but these guys do a great job of making it as entertaining as possible.
From stand-up acts about defensive driving to games, funny pictures, and hilarious videos, you might actually be a little entertained going through it. This course has been approved in San Diego for about 2 decades, you get 24/7/365 customer support via phone, live chat, or email, and they have a great reputation with over 4 million people going through their course already. All in all this is about as good as it gets, especially if you have a goofy sense of humor.
Go To Traffic School
For those of you who are only interested in paying the lowest possible price, this is the traffic school for you. Most of you don’t care about comedians and video based courses and U.S. based 24/7/365 customer support. Well, this course might not have all the fancy bells and whistles, but it has been certified for San Diego for more than 2 decades and if you find a cheaper online traffic school, they will match or beat the price.
With the lower pricing and lack of features, they do take a little bit of a hit with their online reputation. For example, they have a B rating with the Better Business Bureau, mostly due to people having trouble with their customer service team. However, of all of the lowest priced traffic school courses, this is the only one I would consider.
Am I eligible to Attend an Online Traffic School in San Diego?
Once your traffic ticket is filed with the court, you may receive a reminder notice in the mail. This notice will indicate whether you may be eligible to attend traffic school. You are INELIGIBLE for traffic school if the following apply:
- You attended traffic school for a violation occurring within 18 months of the current violation.
- For those with a commercial license, you were driving a commercial vehicle when the violation occurred.
For those eligible for traffic school, completing traffic school DOES NOT result in a dismissal of the violation(s). Your conviction will be reported to the California Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV). However, if you have a noncommercial driver’s license, the DMV may choose to make the conviction confidential, such that it would not appear on your driving record. If you have a commercial driver’s license, the conviction will appear on your driving record, but the DMV may choose not to count it as a violation point.
If you attend traffic school despite being ineligible, your conviction will remain on your non-confidential driving record. If you are ineligible for traffic school or are eligible but decide not to attend, your automobile insurance, as well as other areas, may be adversely affected. Refer to Vehicle Code § 42005, Vehicle Code § 1808.7, Vehicle Code § 41501, Vehicle Code § 42007, and California Rules of Court, rule 4.104, for additional information.
You may obtain a list of approved traffic schools from a local California Department of Motor Vehicles office.
Final Thoughts
Once again, taking a San Diego traffic school isn’t going to be fun, but the top 3 traffic schools listed above are going to be your best options. There are literally hundreds of online traffic schools available in San Diego so you do have many additional choices.
As I’m just one guy, I can only vouch for the courses I’ve personally gone through and analyzed (yes, I’ve gone through all of the above courses myself). There may be other legitimate courses to go with, but I’ll let you be the guinea pig for those!