happyraul

Yesterday I got a ticket for "Improper lane use." The officer wrote, "failed to exit as directed." I was going home from work around rush hour, and I was in the far right lane, intending to take the next exit. This lane had signs overhead saying "exit only." Now, when I got closer to the actual exit, I changed my mind and decided to stay on the highway so I changed lanes to get out of the far right lane. I did not cut anyone off or anything like, that the officer admitted as much to me, and I also did not cross over any solid lines, only the dashed line separating the lanes. A few seconds after I changed lanes the officer pulled up behind me and pulled me over and gave me the ticket. Now, in my state (Missouri), it is legal to change lanes when there is a dashed line between them, the driver's handbook says something like "you should not cross any solid lines." I feel like a have a pretty solid defense, considering that those exit only signs are simply advisory, they do not compel you to remain in that lane once you've entered it, and I made a legal lane change. Does anyone have any advice on what to say to the judge to get this dismissed? Or anything at all for me to consider?

EDIT: I should add, in case it is not clear, the police officer pulled me over because many people honestly use those exit only lanes to get ahead of the crowd packing the other lanes during rush hour. He obviously felt I was doing the same thing, and even if I was, I would still feel the same way. After all, if they wanted people not to do such a thing, they ought to put a solid line instead of a dashed one to separate the exit only lane, but as they do not do that, there is nothing to suggest that one can't get out of the exit only lane before exiting the highway, right? One can argue that such behavior can cause accidents, but my ticket did not say I drove recklessly or anything of the sort.

maleficent

1. If you can, take pictures of where you crossed the line to show what the road looked like, during the time you made the lane change.

2. Show up in court, and dress "appropriately". There's always a chance the police officer wont show up.

Check the laws as it regards to highway driving. The officer doesn't know what your intent was, you might have been in the exit lane to bypass some traffic, or you might have changed your mind. Investigate the laws.

How many points are involved in this ticket? or is it fine only. Does that affect your insurance. If you do get the ticket, some states have "driver inprovement clinics" you still ahve to pay the fine, you have to pay for the course, but no points-- which saves a bundle in thelong run.
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skier

take it to the courts. If what you say is accurate, you are fully within the laws of your state. However, this is just an opinion of an 18 year old living in Alberta, so take it with a grain of salt m'kay?

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fhqwhgads

Go to court. If you are found not guilty, then you're good to go.

If you're found guilty, and you have a clean driving record, there's a chance that you'll get probation before judgement and just pay a reduced fine with no points.

absorbentishe

I've fought speeding tickets, and won each time. Normally if you just show up, the cop won't and you'll be excused. Either way, you'll get it reduced if nothing else.

onetime2

I agree with others, head to court. If you can take pictures. Hopefully the cop won't show up. Get to court early and speak to the prosecutor and you may be able to work out a deal and plead to something else. Of course, if you're going for an all out acquittal then the deal route isn't for you.

Make sure you have a good reason why you suddenly decided not to exit. Like, "I remembered I was supposed to pick up dry cleaning for my wife at a place off the next exit". If you did actually go and stop somewhere right after the fact further down the highway and you've got a receipt, bring it to court with you. Just make sure there is a reasonable reason behind your trip there. You can't really say "I needed to get gas" if there was a gas station at the exit you chose not to use.

Good luck with it. Let us know how it turns out.

BTW, what's the fine for that offense? Any points?

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happyraul

Thanks for the advice everyone. I do not know about points, the fine is $50.

The truth is that taking the exit is the way I go home if the highway is too slow. In that case as I approached the exit, the highway was clearing up so I decided to stay on it instead of getting off. I'm definitely going to court, and right now the plan is to plead not guilty and at the trial show them pictures of the exit and the location that I changed lanes, where the line is not solid. My focus will not be on the reason that I changed lanes, instead I will argue that I did not commit a traffic violation.

I think a relevant question is whether the police officer would give me a ticket had I done the exact same thing in the middle of the night rather than at rush hour. If the answer is no then clearly I did nothing wrong, given that I did not cut anyone off or anything like that. If the answer is yes then clearly I am missing something important.

pocon1

This came up in a column of the Washington Post recently, because a lot of assholes do use the exit lanes to slide one or two cars ahead. I have cut people off trying to do that before. You are in the right, however.

StephenSa

Did you use your turn signal? Changing lanes without signaling is an improper lane use. They might get you that way.

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happyraul

I did use my turn signal, and I was not at all close to cutting anyone off. If I had, I am sure the officer should and would have written that on the ticket. He had nothing to pin on me at all. Today on my way home I took pictures of the exact spot where I changed lanes to bring into court. That way I can show them that I did indeed change lanes where I was allowed to do so.

One of my friends posed another relevant question: At what point after entering such an exit only lane are you no longer allowed to change lanes out of it? The answer, of course cannot be anything other than at the point where the line between the lanes becomes solid, since prior to that there is no other indicator of such a point. The police officer seemed to think that I had crossed some invisible and undetermined point where I could no longer switch lanes, even though I was still in the dashed line section. I wonder what he would of said had I asked him about it.

So far people seem to agree with me that I will likely be able to get it dismissed, but we shall see. My court date is July 7th. If I do get the ticket dismissed I plan on exhibiting the same driving behavior as often as I can, but until such a time I shall employ a different route home.

soccerchamp76

Read up the driver's handbook.
The officer cannot prove intent and if what you did was legal, there is no penalty. What the others said is true, if they wanted to make it illegal, they would use solid lines.

Since we are fellow Missourians, I see that you are in Kirksville and I am in St. Louie so I hope you have been here to see my point here. Going 270 North or South at the I-70 interchange, there is a solid double white line and also a sign above in red and white that says "Crossing double lines prohibited." This makes it damn clear not to use those two exit lanes as a lane to gain traffic spots further ahead as the exit lanes continue for about a mile.

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happyraul

Yeah actually I go to school in Kirksville, but I'm in St. Louis for the summer, so I got the ticket going 270 South. The exit only lane in question was the Dougherty Ferry one.

soccerchamp76

Yeah, that exit lane is pretty long, I can see why the cop would wanna prevent people from using that lane as a pass-lane.

What year are you at Truman, btw?

P.S. I dont know why they would make the exit lane that long, it is pretty huge compared to others.

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Brian Griffin: Ah, if my memory serves me, this is the physics department.
Chris Griffin: That would explain all the gravity.

happyraul

I'm starting my 4th year in the fall, but I only have one semester left, then it's time to start living I guess :-)

I think the lane is so long because they just continued it from the Manchester entrance ramp. Still, it's not the police officer's place to prevent people from using it as a pass-lane if such an act is not in violation of a traffic law.

irseg

Sounds like a bullshit ticket to me. Everything I've ever heard says as long as the lane is dashed, you can change into/out of it.

When I lived in DC, people would use the SHOULDER as a passing lane in heavy traffic. Those are the people who should be ticketed! It always pissed me off when somebody would do that, and then some other idiot would actually let them back in after they passed about 20 cars. I always went out of the way to block those assholes and make 'em sit there.

Prince

If the lane wasn't dashed, but solid, you would not be allowed to move back to the left lane, but then again you would not be allowed to switch from the left lane to the exit lane either, right? If the line was solid, you wouldn't be able to use the exit lane for its purpose.

If the lane is for exiting only, and you switch back to the left lane after driving on it for a while, then I can see why you got a ticket.

I think a lot of traffic violations take place because we change our minds about either where we are going or how we intend to get there. Hence we do what you did, or take U-turns in places we shouldn't, etc. Y'know, cutting corners because it seems to make more sense. And oftentimes it does.

Still, a rather bullshit ticket. I don't agree with giving a ticket for driving without a seat belt on. As I see it, whether I wear a seat belt when I drive or not makes little contribution to the safety or lack thereof of others, only to that of myself. If I want to risk dying in even a small crash, then that's up to me and my stupidity.

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ibis

If there's not points, I'd say just pay the $50 fine and be done with it.

G5_Todd

then he should have issued u a summons for passing on the right rather than what he did....

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happyraul

It is not illegal to pass on the right.

Flyguy

I don't think it's about the $50, but about a cop giving out bullshit tickets to people. I assume that happyraul wasn't the first recipient of this cop trying to meet his monthly quota.

iliketoast

My take on it,
A bunch of ppl drive like jerks during rush hours and pull stupid maneuvers with the exit lanes.
Enough ppl complain that the Police force decides to do something about it.
Officer billy bob comes in one morning and finds a memo from chief jimbo saying 'we need to crack down on those jerks using the exit lanes improperly'.
Officer Billy Bob just wants to do his job and maybe brown nose a bit, so he follows what the memo says.

Go to court, the cop won't show up, he is just making a nice stack of tickets to show his chief, so his chief can show the public look we are cracking down on this problem.

Renny

I've heard that cops get paid quite a bit of overtime to show up to court dates. Only have personal experience once to back this up and the cop did show up.

Prince

Do you write for a living? These characters just come alive, man.

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happyraul

Well its time for an update I suppose...I went to court on Tuesday and pled not guilty. I then stuck around to talk to the prosecutor, and after a bit of discussion he offered me a deal: 2 months probation, court costs ($24.50), and illegal parking. I took the deal, though I feel bad about it now. I wish I would have declined and gone to court. I did absolutely nothing wrong. Anyway thanks for the replies everyone :-)

Flyguy

Probation for a traffic ticket? I would've gone to court dude.

maleficent

What happens if you get stopped within the next two months?

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tooth

Sounds like a crappy deal to me. You should have stuck to your guns and fought it. What happened to stickin' it to the man for writting you up on a BS ticket?

happyraul

I don't know what probation means...but I never speed more than 5 mph over the limit, usually I'm one or two under, so I doubt I'll get a ticket within the next two months, so the probation doesn't bother me. tooth, you said it best, it does bother me that I sold out instead of going to court and fighting it to the end. I guess that will be one of my few regrets. I really wasn't thinking it through at the time. The thing is, I was having a hard time getting through to the prosecutor, and when I showed him the picture of the area where I got the ticket he immediately was like "Oh I know what you were doing!" He told me he gets so mad when he sees people getting ahead by using the exit lanes on his way home from work. Anyway, by that point I was feeling pretty desperate, and I was afraid the police officer would lie and say I crossed the solid line or something at the trial. So that's why I chickened out, but I will regret that. Maybe next summer I'll get another ticket like this one and fight it all the way.

MSD

Or maybe you'll see a cop not pull you over for a BS offense. Fight something worth fighting.

Jam

thats such bs, even if you were using to get ahead, as long as you didnt speed, cut any one off, or cross on the solid line then you didnt break anylaws...

where did the parking thing come from?

happyraul

They needed to charge me with something, otherwise it would have just been dismissed, so they did the parking.

By the way I was joking, I'm not wasting my time with trying to get a ticket just to fight it, sorry that I didn't make that more clear.

tekaweni

Parking? parking wasnt involved - as the offence and the deal are both documented i'd take this to a newspaper.....

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If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten

happyraul

Perhaps you are not aware but this is standard practice with traffic law. When someone gets a speeding ticket or commits some other moving violation and gets a lawyer to "take care of it," the lawyer will most often convert the moving violation to a non-moving violation via a deal with the prosecutor. Of course this generally involves a substantial fine for the non-moving violation, around $200, and the lawyer's fee for his services. All of this is done for the sake of avoiding points on your licence, and your insurance rates rising. In my case I did it myself, and since both I and the prosecutor knew I was innocent, I did not have to pay a stiff fine, only the $24.50 court costs. When a lawyer takes care of your speeding ticket, they make you pay out the ass because you both know you were guilty. I don't know if this is allowed in other states but in Missouri it happens all the time. IMO it makes the whole points system bullshit cause the people that can afford it will never get points on their record, and that just isn't fair to those that are not so fortunate. I say if you are guilty of a moving violation and you lose in court, you suffer the consequences like everyone else.

God of Thunder

It depends if it is during their regularly scheduled shift or not. If they work nights and the court date is during the day, then yes they get overtime, which is why a lot of them show up. This is also why a lot of cities have night courts so that tickets recieved at night are fought at night without paying the overtime.

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Eric640

I agree. No one is qualified to make a judgment call like that. The question is weather or not you broke the law.

Which you didnt as far as I can tell.

Eric640

OMFG. They changed the offense from a higher offense to a lower offense.

The fact that the lower offence literally does not apply to the situation at all whatsoever means nothing. Except that for the lower offense the penalty is supposedly less... therefore he gets off easier.

They have to ticket him for SOMETHING, so they just made something up... so they can put it in his record or whatever. In the end he gets the better end of the deal since he pays a lower fine and doesn't loose points etc.

The "parking violation" is just for the paperwork. They have to call it something.



We still don't know what "probation" means though... perhaps you can clarify?

G5_Todd

delete

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"....and when you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pussy."

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G5_Todd

it sure is....atleast in NJ where i am a law enforcement officer

cheeterbo

when most people retain an attorney for these piddily-shit V&T's its because:

a- they dont have time to deal with it
b- they really need to keep points off license
c- they are pathetic when it comes to dealing with these types of things
d- they have money to burn

if you have the ability and time, then fight the thing, but happyrual, dont beat up on attorneys

to be correct, the attorneys don't "convert it to a non-moving violation" it is the district attorney that does it, and most of the time it is to a lower "moving violation".

additionally, just because you have points on your license, doesnt mean your insurance rates go up. only if you give your insurance company a reason to check will they find out, a reason like trying to get cheaper insurance, or filing a claim.

fhqwhgads

Glad to see that I'm not alone around here...but I'm not from Jersey.