Just got back from a day trip to SD traffic court in Vista. (North county). I also could not get a human on the phone in multiple attempts, both the online and automated phone systems did not have my citation# in their system to allow me to get my automatic 30 day extension. So I had to drive down there.
I got a speeding ticket from CHP on the 5 freeway back in March when I was driving down to visit my dad in San Diego. Also no proof of insurance. I had valid insurance, just had not put the latest insurance card in that car. The *bail/fine* if I simply wanted to pay it and get on with life?
$1158.00 
It turned out that most of that amount was for the no insurance ticket and it got removed when I showed them proof that I was insured on that date for that car, something like $340.00 now for the speeding ticket. I'm going to fight it, got a court date today.
The judge was actually very nice and professional. I've seen some real dipschit "pro tems" presiding over traffic court in L.A., those are just loser attorneys playing judge for the day. They take a 4-hour class or something.
I did give a counter employee a piece of my mind regarding their (non) phone service. When she told me that they only had one person taking all calls for that court
because of budget cuts, I asked her HTF can you have a budget deficit when a ticket like mine is $1157 and this place looks pretty fking busy today(?)
That shut her ass up completely.