[CrackMonkey] Welcome to Finland, where driving an automobile is NOT a survival trait.

[Nick Moffitt]

----- Forwarded message from glen mccready <gkm at petting-zoo.net> -----
Forwarded-by: Rob Windsor <windsor at warthog.com>
Forwarded-by: Zach Metzinger <zmetzing at warthog.com>
Forwarded-by: Rogers, Jason <jrogers at whiterocknetworks.com>

Finnish Drivers Don't Mind Sliding Scale,
But Instant Calculation Gets Low Marks

By STEVE STECKLOW 
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

HELSINKI, Finland -- Jaako Rytsola, a 27-year-old Finnish
Internet entrepreneur and newspaper columnist, was cruising
in his BMW one recent evening. "The road was wide and I
was feeling good," he later wrote. "It's nice to be driving
when there's no one in sight."

But this road wasn't empty; a radar-equipped police car was
clocking his speed. The officer pulled over Mr. Rytsola's
car and issued him a speeding ticket for driving 43 miles an
hour in a 25-mile-an-hour zone.

The fine: $71,400.

'A Nordic Tradition'

The staggering sum was no mistake. In Finland, traffic fines
generally are based on two factors: the severity of the
offense and the driver's income. The concept has been
embedded in Finnish law for decades: When it comes to
crime, the wealthy should suffer as much as the poor.
Indeed, sliding-scale financial penalties are also imposed
for offenses ranging from shoplifting to securities-law
violations. "This is a Nordic tradition," says Erkki Wuoma,
special planning adviser at the Ministry of Interior. "We
have progressive taxation and progressive punishments. So
the more you earn, the more you pay."

But the arrival of a new, high-tech police tool for
calculating traffic fines is making some well-to-do Finns
progressively furious.

For years, the size of traffic fines was largely dependent on
the honor system. Police officers asked violators for their
current monthly gross income, then consulted a book of
tables to calculate the fine. The police complained that
drivers routinely lied -- it was "the national sport," says
traffic officer Risto Maksimainen -- and the only recourse
was to go to court. Motorists complained, too, arguing that
the fines should be based on take-home pay, which given
Finland's hefty income-tax rates, is considerably less than
gross income.

And so, in October 1999, the Finnish government made
some major changes, including basing fines on net income.
But the biggest change was this: Using cellular phones, the
police can now tap into official tax records, which in
Finland are open to the public, and learn within seconds a
driver's reported income and the corresponding traffic fine.

A Courtroom Challenge

Keijo Kopra, managing director of Vierumaen Teollisuus
Oy, a wood-products company, experienced this firsthand in
November 1999. On his way home from work, Mr. Kopra
was pulled over for driving 14 miles an hour over the speed
limit. Using the new system, the officer wrote him a ticket
for $14,500.

Enraged, the executive challenged the amount in court, and a
judge lowered it to $9,000. But then the police mentioned
that Mr. Kopra had received two previous speeding tickets
in 1999 before the new system went into effect. Based on the
income he had claimed at the time, each fine was $750. The
judge, outraged, imposed additional fines of $38,000

Mr. Kopra remains apoplectic. "This is no constitutionally
governed state, this is a land of rhinos!" he says. "This is
legalized robbery by police. I'm surprised they're not
authorized to shoot you, too. But of course if they shoot you,
they cannot get any money out of you."

Rather than pay the fine, Mr. Kopra says he offered to go to
jail. The judge refused -- and Mr. Kopra was forced to pay.

Teemu Selanne, Finland's most celebrated hockey player
and a member of the National Hockey League's Anaheim
Mighty Ducks, apparently isn't thrilled with the system,
either. In June, he was fined $39,000 for colliding with
another car in Finland and injuring five people. Mr. Selanne
declined to comment for this story, but a close friend says he
was so upset by the fine that he threatened to leave his
country for good. "He was really angry because he thought it
was not fair," says Hjallis Harkimo, who owns several
European sports teams.

Many Finns believe the system is fair. Patrolling the
highways outside Helsinki in an unmarked Opel, Officer
Maksimainen and his partner, Anssi Ukonaho, clock a red
Volkswagen Golf driving 18 miles an hour over the speed
limit. They stop the car, and the driver, Janne Rajala, a
26-year-old student, produces his driver's license. Officer
Ukonaho whips out his Nokia phone and punches in some
numbers, including Mr. Rajala's social-security number.

Within seconds, Mr. Rajala's 1999 tax records appear on the
phone's tiny screen: his monthly gross income ($975) and
his after-tax income ($724). The screen also flashes his fine:
$82. Because this amount is below the minimum fine for
driving this fast, the officers write a ticket for $106.

"I think it's okay," Mr. Rajala says, adding he would see
nothing wrong with paying more if he earned more. "Why
not? When you have so much money, it doesn't matter."

Many politicians here apparently agree. Leena Harkimo, a
Conservative Party member of the Finnish Parliament and
wife of the sports-team owner, tried to introduce a bill last
year that would have capped most speeding tickets at a mere
$7,825. But only 29 of the 200 members of parliament
supported the legislation. "Some people think it's the only
way to get the wealthy people to drive slowly or respect the
law," she says. "If they're speeding often, let's make a
system where they lose their driver's license easily." Traffic
fines go to Finland's treasury to be used for general
government purposes.

Mr. Rytsola, who was issued the $71,400 speeding ticket in
October and another $44,100 ticket in August for zigzagging
in downtown Helsinki, says he supports income-based
penalties, but with a cap on traffic fines. Under the present
system, he says, "if you earn enough you shouldn't even
touch a car," noting that accidentally driving too fast could
cost the richest Finns hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Government officials concede the new system is more about
equity than safety. While the average fine has doubled in the
past year to about $219, the number of speeding tickets
issued is about the same, and there has been no drop in the
number of traffic fatalities. "It's a big problem," says Anna
Lisa Tarvainen, a senior officer in the Ministry of Transport.
Traffic fines are paid to the Ministry of Justice.

Heikki Summala, a professor of traffic psychology at the
University of Helsinki, blames the healthy Finnish economy.
"Always when the economy is strong, people drive
somewhat faster and have somewhat more accidents," he
says. "Some people are simply more in a hurry ... and time
is money."

Dr. Summala notes that what makes Finland's new fine
system possible is the country's extensive computerized
databases and advanced cellular-phone technology. Finland,
after all, is home to Nokia Corp., the world's largest
cellular-phone-handset maker, and seven out of every 10
Finns use cell phones. However, given the complexity of the
new law, it's hard to imagine that anything short of a
supercomputer could calculate a Finnish speeding ticket.

Using an overhead projector back at the Interior Ministry,
Mr. Wuoma attempts to explain the math. He takes out a
piece of paper covered with long equations, which seem
more appropriate for a college class in nuclear physics.

The equations start with a motorist's net monthly income.
The figure comes into play whenever a driver is caught
going at least 12 miles an hour over the posted limit (below
that, the fine is a fixed amount, ranging from $63 to $110).

To begin, the driver's monthly net income is reduced by
1,500 Finnish marks ($235) and that total is divided by 60.
This figure is supposed to represent a person's daily
disposable income. Then, for every dependent, such as a
child or nonworking spouse, 15 marks is subtracted. But as
many as 20 marks may be added depending on the value of
the driver's other assets, including real estate.

The final figure, called a day fine, is then multiplied by a
number ranging between one and 120, representing the
severity of the violation as determined by the traffic officer.
For example, a person driving 20 miles an hour over the
limit on a highway in good weather might be assessed 12
day fines.

It all seems to make sense to the traffic officers looking on.
"It's so simple," says Mr. Ukonaho.

Write to Steve Stecklow at steve.stecklow at wsj.com


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