ISAAK TSIFRIN (above, in back) and his partner Gary Golduber (front) run Web Traffic School. Tsifrin has run classroom traffic schools for more than a decade in the Bay Area. Computer graphics (below) make the lessons more interesting.
On-line traffic schools drive head-on into concerns
By Michele R. Marcucci
STAFF WRITER


CARL Dellano went to traffic school in a traditional classroom, and he didn't like it. So when a court told Dellano he could get rid of a recent ticket by taking traffic school on the Internet, he jumped at the chance.

"You're a captive audience. And it's not a happy thing," the Tracy resident says of his experience at a classroom-based traffic course. "Especially some of this comedy. It's as funny as a hernia."

But the Internet school, which Dellano took over the course of three days in the comfort of his own home, was far more convenient, and mercifully comedy-free, Dellano says.

"I think I learned more from the online (course), " he says. "And of course, you're less angry."

Dellano, a software librarian, is among a growing number of people flocking to online traffic schools, now an option for drivers collecting tickets in more than 30 California counties, including Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara. Contra Costa courts only allow drivers to take classes online at a judge's discretion. The schools offer an alternative to conventional classroom training — which usually gobbles up a full Saturday — by allowing students to work at home and at their own pace, says Craig Buck, co-founder of Traffic School to Go and head of the Association of Online Traffic School Educators. It may also be a more effective way to teach people to be better drivers, Buck says.

"The structure focuses you to concentrate on things you are unfamiliar with, so you actually learn more," says Buck, based in Sherman Oaks in Southern California. "You don't have to waste a lot of time on things you already know."

Anne Weills, an Oakland lawyer who has taken Internet traffic school twice, says she was able to learn more of the material by reading it, rather than listening to a teacher in a classroom.

Where to sign up

California has about 40 In- ternet-based traffic schools, according to Craig Buck, co- founder of Traffic School to Go and head of the Association of Online Traffic School Educators. Some of the bigger programs are listed below, although you can only attend an online school if it is approved by the court that is handling your ticket.

The On-Line Traffic School: onlinetraffic.com

OnlineTrafficSchool.com: onlinetrafficschool.com

Traffic School to Go: trafficschooltogo.com

Web Traffic School: webtrafficschool.com

License from DMV

A bill sitting in the state As- sembly, which both traditional and Internet traffic schools are working on, could require In- ternet schools to get licenses from the DMV. The bill could resolve these issues, both Internet and classroom-based traffic course providers say.

Isaak Tsifrin says he doesn't fear the Internet revolution. In fact, he has embraced it.

Tsifrin has run classroom-based traffic schools for more than a decade, and still has schools in San Leandro and San Francisco. But, out of an office in downtown Oakland, he and partner Gary Golduber run Web Traffic School.

Tsifrin, whose Internet school is available to offenders in more than 30 counties, says he is only presenting traffic offenders another option, and doesn't expect his classroom-based business to disappear.

"A lot of people are using a computer too much during the week, and they don't want to do another four to six hours in front of the computer. They come to regular traffic school," Tsifrin says. "We ask why not go to your computer, and they say, 'I'm sick and tired of my cubicle."







You can reach Michele Marcucci at (510) 208-6434 or by email at mmarcucci@angnewspapers.com.

"I would do it again," Weills says of her Internet experience."Though by now I've memorized most of the vehicle code."

Internet traffic school has come a long way since 1997, when Los Angeles courts became the first in the nation to offer it. Offenders who took that program could register for and take that course online, but were required to print out the answers to their final test and mail them in to the court.

Now, Internet schools offer everything online, and sometimes snazzy, animated graphics (Web Traffic School) or snappy writing (Traffic School to Go) are part of the deal. In most counties, students can take and submit their final tests online (except a handful of counties such as San Francisco, which requires Internet students to take their tests at a set location). And in some counties, the school, not the student, is required to send a certificate of completion to the court.

The courses, which on av- erage cost around $24.95, can also be cheaper than classroom-based schools, some company owners and students say.

Yellow light


But not everybody is excited about this new wave of traffic schools. Owners of traditional, classroom-based schools say their Internet cousins are more focused on offering convenience than changing attitudes about driving. Because Internet classes are approved by individual courts — as opposed to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which reviews and approves the curriculum of classroom- based schools — there's a lack of consistency from school to school, says Gabe Roberson, lobbyist for

the California Traffic School Association.

Internet purveyors and students say the courses, which typically serve up several chapters of reading material with quizzes after each one, take three to six hours to complete. In contrast, classroom traffic courses are required by law to run for a minimum of 400 minutes — a little more than 6 and 1/2 hours.

"Is it fair for the courts to create a market (for online traffic school) when (traditional) traffic school is compelled by law to have people in the classrooms for eight hours? Obviously, it's destroying the industry," Roberson says.

Internet-based schools might also be easier to cheat than those in the classroom, because the computer can't tell if the people taking the course are who they say they are, Roberson says.

But Internet course providers say they have security measures in place to thwart would-be cheats, often collecting an array of personal information. And several students say they had never even considered trying to cheat the system

Liza Dawn Aduviso, a Hayward student who took the on-line course after getting a speeding ticket in San Mateo County and found it cheaper and more convenient than traditional school, says an English- speaking friend ended up in a Spanish-language school because it was all she could find before the time to complete the course expired.

"She sat through the whole class not knowing anything the instructor was saying," Aduviso says. "I think I learned at least a little more than her."