Kimmo 

It's never fun paying a fine, but after the pain subsides, I'm sure it'd feel like a feather in your cap!

Although in my jurisdiction, getting done like this counts for the demerit system on our driver's licence, which totally blows. Imagine losing your licence over it!

DiabloScott

A couple friends did. Contested it in court. Judge didn't want to embarrass the park ranger in public (in my perception) so he "took it under advisement" and said "if you don't hear back from me then it's dismissed".

Nothing you do on a bicycle can affect your driving record here in California.

jaxgtr

I got pulled over by a cop once in an area where they have 5 cops for a 2 mile stretch along a road over looking the beach. I was drafting behind a mini van in front of me doing about 28 in a 20. The cop told me to pull over, but not the van that was obviously going faster. I know one of he cops that patrols this little area. Anyway, I generally carry id and a credit\debit card, but when he asked me for my license, I told him I did not have any id on me and I asked if if was seriously thinking of writing a ticket. This guy is not well liked in this group of cops. When I asked why he did not also pull over the van, he sort of looked at me and did not answer. At the time, I had a camera on my bike and told him that I would introduce this as evidence that he let the van go and pulled me over. He told me that I should always have ID on me and told to watch the speed and walked off. When I called my friend, he just laughed and told me that he would let the other cops know that he was pulling over cyclist and letting a van go. Said it would not go over well with the Sgt. In the end, he ended up pulling over another cyclist, wrote her a ticket, the woman contested it, it was tossed. He is no longer at that precinct.

Robert A

I don't think that's correct. You get a citation on a bike, it shows up on your MVR and your insurance carrier finds out. A vehicle code violation is a vehicle code violation.

tomato coupe

Yep, a couple of friends were cited for having their dogs off-leash. They made the mistake of offering their drivers license as ID, then discovered from their insurance company that it went on their record as some type of miscellaneous infraction.

abshipp 

Not for speeding, but I did get pulled over for blowing through a stop sign.

In my defense, it was a 4 way stop that had clear sight lines for several hundred yards in all directions and there was no other traffic around, plus there was a hill coming up and I didn't want to lose my momentum.

In the cop's defense, I absolutely, unquestionably, flagrantly disregarded the traffic rules that I am supposed to follow.

Got a ticket, went to court, and got it reduced under the terms of not committing a moving violation for the next 90 days.

colnago62

In Washington State, I don't believe bicycle infractions go on your DMV record. My friend got a ticket on his bike for speeding (it was a downhill in a residential area). He paid it and mounted the ticket on his wall. It is legal in Washington State to roll stops signs as long as you yield to traffic that is already stopped or has the right of way.

DiabloScott

I think you're right and I rescind my earlier comment. I heard a judge say that these "specific" speeding tickets wouldn't go on MVR and I extrapolated that too much.

phrantic09

I got pulled over once for speeding but did not get a ticket. On a semi long descent into the village of Altamont in upstate NY the speed limit changes rather abruptly from 45 to 30 - there was an officer sitting at a convenience store that gave me a stern warning.

WhyFi

The next time you tell that story, leave out the bit about the descent.

phrantic09

Hah! Fair enough.

datlas 

There is a MUP near me that has a 15MPH speed limit. I avoid it because there are too many pedestrians and wobbly cyclists. One of my friends got pulled over recently for going 18MPH and got yelled at by the LEO but somehow was able to weasel out of getting a ticket. I think even a casual cyclist could break the speed limit there.

Kimmo 

Wow, this is precisely the sort of Kafkaesque irony sandwich I like to hand to rabid capitalists who insist collectivists like myself want to bring on an Orwellian nightmare.

The argument is always over how centralised or privatised our systems of control should be, but the real question is whether they work better hierarchical or flat.

Me, I'm pretty sick of constraints obviously designed by people not subject to them; if you want to live in an actual meritocracy, you have to give everyone a chance.

Whoops, carry on

Kimmo 

Bingpot.
OMG, you live in a paradise where some reasonable laws apply to cycling.

I've had to flout this dumbarse helmet law since 1990.

plumberroy

Over 40 years ago I got a written warning for 31 in a 20 mph . I few years back I saw a deputy sheriff turn on the Little Miami river trail and pull over 3 road bikers judging from how fast they passed me (I was running ~15mph) they were probably going over to 20 mph limit plus they blew threw a stop sign . It was also the Memorial day weekend and the trail was crowded with casual riders

Seattle Forrest

​​​​​​I hiked with a lady who got stopped in Florida, she was bar hopping on a beach cruiser. DUI. She can't afford to drive because of what it did to her insurance. Drunk cycling is explicitly allowed here.

Hypno Toad

Damned happy I did get stopped ... few years back, I was at a sales meeting on Long Boat Key, a couple co-worker bike buddies grabbed resort beach cruises and headed to town for "a beer". The expat from Germany really enjoyed ordering "one more last" pitcher for the table. That was one slow and unsteady ride back to the resort and so happy we didn't have another meeting that day!

Back when I was a dumb college kid, I got a warning for rolling a stop sign at speed, like other posters in this thread have said - I had clear sight lines and no other cars near the stop.

Kimmo 

Words fail me, so much envy of your legislators.

Not that I particularly want to ride blotto, but just the sheer amount of evidence-based sense in that is a middle finger to the sort of cynical button-pushing which generally prevails. Mostly it's never about the actual outcome, but just how it advances the interests of the powerful in some incidental way.

Pretty sick of being a pawn in a culture war. We've got rabble-rousers on talkback radio making us scapegoats just for being on a bike, it's obscene in its perversity.

Seattle Forrest

Probably not a meaningful distinction but for what it's worth, a cyclist got arrested, took it to the state supreme court, and they decided that the legislature had meant the DUI laws for vehicles not bikes.

I don't remember all the details of how it came to be, but police are allowed to offer drunk cyclists a ride home, which is the extent of what they can do about it.

colnago62

This will really get you then; The county is looking at rescinding the helmet law because statistics show that the police are only ticketing minorities. Even the largest bike club in the state is backing getting rid of it due to it being ineffective.

Kimmo 

Tell you what, the way things are going, I might prefer to live in the US one day...

Bassmanbob

During an organized cycling event, there was a mobile speed limit sign that was flashing 35 mph. There was a cop right after the sign. I got his attention and yelled at him, "That sign says 35 mph... challenge accepted!" We both enjoyed a chuckle.

BEC111

Slightly off point, I got pulled over once for speeding in my 1959 Bug. I was so excited for having gone over 55 MPH limit that I asked the cop to follow me and flash his lights when I reached 55. (The Speedometer didn’t work.) He laughed and didn’t give me a ticket.

btographer

I got booked for going too slow.

Seattle Forrest

I'll post some photos of the cycling around here when I get home.