Speeding Tickets...

[Triskeliongirl]

Maybe they realize they WERE BREAKING THE LAW.

It's all part of taking responsibility for your choices.

V.

I can appreciate your viewpoint, however the last two times I was pulled over, I didn't think they were fair applications of the law, I feel they were cops out to ticket cyclists. One was as we were a few blocks from the parking lot for a rural ride, the speed limit suddenly changes from 30 to 20 for a single block with no apparent reason (other than that it is a block from the parking lot cyclists use to begin their ride). I genuinely didn't see the sign indicating the speed limit change, so I have 2 choices, I can yell at the cop that its a speed trap and take the ticket, or I can suck up and hope I get off. The other recent incident is a cop starts following us on the way to another rural ride (sees the 2 bikes on the rack) and as we pull into the lot, pulls up next to us, and tell us we are in violation from having too many inspection stickers displayed (we had the current one, but neglected to remove the expired ones). Again, I could have fumed that I was feeling like a harasssed cyclist, but I politely apologized and told him I wasn't aware that it was against the law to display expired stickers as long as I had a valid current one (which is the truth), promised to remove the expired ones when I got home, and in the end he didn't ticket me. BTW I got off the second time (and I'm still not sure I believe it was ever really a violation) but not the first. I accept responsiblity for my actions and pay the fines when levied, but I don't see what is wrong with trying to talk the cop out of issuing a ticket from a purely practical standpoint. However, I respect others that feel it demeans them to play up to the cops power trip.