anthwhite
Member
Just an update. For those that didn't read the original post, I will summarize it.
Stopped at a red light in Broward County Florida that had the sensors in the roadway. The bike wasn't heavy enough to trigger the signal, so after I waited for quite some time, I proceeded to make my left turn when no on-coming traffic was present. An officer was sitting in a parking lot watching me and as soon as I made the turn, he pulled me over and gave me a ticket.
After much research of Florida law, I decided to plea not guilty and take my chances in court to get some clarification of what to do in the event that a light is not working properly. Basically, if I have to have a license plate issued by the state as any other motor vehicle then the red light sensor should be calibrated to detect my vehicle as well.
I went to the preliminary hearing yesterday and asked the judge to dismiss the ticket on the basis that Florida law was not clear on what to do when a traffic signal is not functioning properly.
The officer that ticketed me also wrote on the back of the ticket that I did stop and had my turn signal on and waited for the light to turn green and didn't proceed until it was safe to do so.
The judge agreed (hesitantly) and dismissed the case.
Maybe I just got lucky and caught the Judge on a good day. Maybe he was just bike friendly. I don't know but if anyone else is having this problem in Florida, you might want to give it a shot.
Stopped at a red light in Broward County Florida that had the sensors in the roadway. The bike wasn't heavy enough to trigger the signal, so after I waited for quite some time, I proceeded to make my left turn when no on-coming traffic was present. An officer was sitting in a parking lot watching me and as soon as I made the turn, he pulled me over and gave me a ticket.
After much research of Florida law, I decided to plea not guilty and take my chances in court to get some clarification of what to do in the event that a light is not working properly. Basically, if I have to have a license plate issued by the state as any other motor vehicle then the red light sensor should be calibrated to detect my vehicle as well.
I went to the preliminary hearing yesterday and asked the judge to dismiss the ticket on the basis that Florida law was not clear on what to do when a traffic signal is not functioning properly.
The officer that ticketed me also wrote on the back of the ticket that I did stop and had my turn signal on and waited for the light to turn green and didn't proceed until it was safe to do so.
The judge agreed (hesitantly) and dismissed the case.
Maybe I just got lucky and caught the Judge on a good day. Maybe he was just bike friendly. I don't know but if anyone else is having this problem in Florida, you might want to give it a shot.
