lessons learned

from traffic court

Well i plead not guilty and had my day in court last week. I lost because I implicated myself with the statement “ I may have jumped the gun.” Up until that point I was doing pretty well. The officer noted that I stopped completely at the light. He got my bike color wrong but I never noted that mistake. I asked the officer, “when you pulled me over you said that you were looking out for my safety, do you really believe that?” He said, “yes, you could’ve been hit by a passing car.” I rebutted “ I was on a one-way street, crossing another cobblestone-one way street. As a hyper aware biker, not only would I have heard a car, I would have seen it.” I should have stopped there but I didn’t. I did say that I wish the officer had giving me a warning rather than a ticket that’s half the cost of my bicycle. If a driver got a ticket for half the cost of their car, they’d be outraged. But the next thing I knew, the hearing was over and I was $190 poorer.

Oh well. Maybe there’s a short documentary to be made somewhere in there. It doesn’t seem right.