Earlier this year I was stopped for following to close to the car in front of me. I was on my bike, on my way to work, it was the morning rush hour traffic, and the car in front of me was the police car.

I have taken a number of safety classes, and know that you should always leave a 3 second space between and the vehicle in front of you. Being I was following a police car I had left myself a little more space.

At the next passing lane the officer slowed below the speed limit, making me and a few other drivers pass, A few miles up the road, the office lights me up.

When the office walks up to me he asked for my “License, reg and Ins” as I am looking for my papers, he tells me why he stopped me, “you where following to close” and I ask how fast was I going? The then says “I did not stop you for speed, you where under 5 car lengths” and I ask what is a car length? DMV and the drivers’ safety program say’s it 3 seconds at a given speed. At this the office says “well don’t you just have all the answers, you where less than ten feet from my car”. So I asked if his car had rear facing cameras, at this he says no and hands me my ticket, which now says “under 1mph at 55mph” I ask the office what that means because he first said it was car lengths. The whole time I was polite, the office then brakes “I am not going to play this game with you, it means what I said”.

At this I decided I would fight this ticket, so when I got you work I wrote down everything that happen, I then looked up online the traffic code for my state.

On the back of the ticket there is all the information you need about where to go and when, also there is a thing called “Trial By Declaration” in California you have to request a TBD, the court will then send you a letter that tells you the amount of the fine, and when your statement of facts needs to be returned by.

You want to write just the facts, do not write your personal feeling amount the officer or the event.

You then return your statement and the fine to the court, and wait for a (court clerk) not a judge to review your and the offices statement (if the office responds)

If the clerk finds you not guilty you get you fine back, if they find you guilty you still get to ask for traffic school or court, I asked for you (in the hopes the office will not show)

On my court day, as we get started the bailiff came to the front and say “If you came to court today in hopes that your office would not show and they did I can offer you one more chance to go to traffic school , please rise your hand and we will tell you if you officer is here”.

So I did, I was told by office had not shown and then asked if I wanted traffic school, I said no.  A few others did take traffic school because the officer had shown up. The bailiff then left the room, about 20mins letter he came back into the room called my name, and handed me a paper that showed my ticket was dismissed because the offer had not shown up.

Please ride safe, Obey the laws but stand up for your rights…