🚀 go-pugleaf

There is a book I saw once in Car and Driver about beating speeding 
tickets in court. Not much help, I can't remember the name. 

The best thing to do is to go to court. I took my last ticket to court
and had the case dismissed. Have a very clear story ready, detailing 
the situation as you see it, with all of the possible questions ready
about why you think the police were in error. If you just show up in 
court, you have a 5 to 7 in 10 chance that the officer will not show
up to testify, at least in my home town; these cases are dismissed out of
hand. The remainder are encouraged to plea bargain with the prosecutor.
You may very well make a reasonable deal there. 

If you do this, make your best showing. Show up on time, look as 
professional and businesslike as possible (most of the people were there
in jeans - I was in a suit), have the mind set that you will be polite, 
unruffled and firm. You must be prepared to see this through if you do it.

If you are one of the minority actually to be tried, you may well have court 
costs added to your fine, so there is a down side, too.

It was my own turn in court that convinced me that the majority of tickets
are actually issued to people violating the law as written - but that the 
courts are completely unprepared to cope with the sheer numbers of cases
if every violator was brought to trial. The only reason the traffic 
enforcement system works at all is that most people pay up without making
a fuss. This has made traffic enforcement into a revenue system.

Philosophically, this is doubleplusungood. I don't want to live in a 
society where this kind of thing happens for all crimes. But I also 
don't like the tickets.

Go to court.

R.G.