Alameda County's worst neighborhood is 63 percent uninsured, the 94621 area of Oakland. Anyone otherwise eligible can get a driver's license and register a car without ever buying an insurance policy, although it's illegal. Legislators let the law requiring police to check insurance papers during routine traffic stops expire in 1992. Now officers ask for proof of insurance only if one party in an accident doesn't furnish policy information to another, according to public affairs officer John Maxfield of the California Highway Patrol. But when CHP officers catch uninsured drivers they write tickets.
Insurance premiums vary radically.
Of course, they didn't want to have their names in print. So I hunted for scofflaws on local streets. When short on cash, most people would rather stiff the insurance company than someone who can turn off the lights, unplug the phone or evict them. Elhoff is what you might call a deliberate defaulter. He has owned a car since 1988 without paying a single insurance payment and he doesn't plan to buy coverage anytime soon.