Odd Traffic Violation Question - PLEASE HELP!!

Dude....Relax.
If LEO really wanted a piece of your stern section, then you'd be carrying a folded up piece of paper in your wallet with instructions on how/where to send in some money or appear in court.

LEO might have been intending to pull you over, and then changed his/her mind.
They're people just like you and me, with all of the good and bad stuff that goes along with being human.
You're in SOCAL, so I'm not even going to try to puzzle out whether or not your maneuver was safe, prudent or legal. IIRC, lane splitting is legal in the PRC---but who knows?
I'll leave that gig to the pros.

Like I said.....just relax.

 

As others have stated, what's happened or gonna happen is over. Worst case is you'll get a piece of paper in the mail stating where to send $$ or where to show up. You might have some new points on your licence and all that entails, but you're not in line for time in the slammer.

Relax.

 

I really don't think you can anonamously get these kinds of citations. Even traffic light cam tickets aren't actual moving violations, they are simply a money grab and that is why they cannot pursue you for them, but don't get pulled over for speeding with 10 of them outstanding.

If cops could write you up and send you tickets in the mail without speaking to you think of the bedlam that would cause.

I am also sure that if he did pull you over and you told him you weren't sure about it and understand and won't do it again you wouldn't have gotten a ticket either...unless he was mad about something already.

 

"Pass on Right Safely

21755. The driver of a motor vehicle may overtake and pass another vehicle upon the right only under conditions permitting such movement in safety. In no event shall such movement be made by driving off the paved or main-traveled portion of the roadway."
http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc21755.htm
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_splitting"]Lane splitting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

I do not know if these apply - lane splitting is for motorcycles and passing on the right typically refers to passing when the lane is obstructed - say in the case of traffic being held up by a car turning left or passing on a multi-lane road - passing a slower car in the left lane on the right which is actually still illegal in some places - for example passing on the right is not allowed on a 75 mile stretch of Rt 95 in Connecticut.

 

I have a hard time visualizing the orientation of the squad car. Your descriptions place it perpendicular to the lanes and traffic, but that can't be correct.

Was he ahead of you, oriented to the flow of traffic, in an adjacent lane at the beginning of your maneuver?

As you started to come abreast of his position, did he angle the nose of his car toward your lane or actually into your lane? Did you have to steer or brake in reaction to him; could you have stopped before reaching his position?

If his car actually was, at some moment, 90 degrees to the traffic, he must have entered the roadway from some driveway to the left, and hadn't gotten fully turned into the lanes yet. He may have been looking to use your "lane" to get oriented but you showed up unexpectedly and made him hit the brakes (and he blipped the siren reflexively). He didn't write you up because you weren't breaking any law. And his pause at the far side of the intersection may have been to handle some other business unrelated to your "contretemps", such as finishing up paperwork related to the place he'd just left, or something else.

What, EXACTLY, were your relative orientations, to each other and to the roadway, from beginning to end, and who braked when and who steered when and in reaction to what?

 

As I understand CA's lane splitting, if it is wide enough to be two lanes it is legal to use it as two lanes. Yes, it is most often applied to two wheeled vehicles, but I trust Macmaster when he ways it was wide enough for 2 four wheeled vehicles. The passing on the right statute in CA only warns against leaving the roadway, which he says he did not, and being safe, which I think he was.

Had parking spaces been painted in, then I feel sure he would not have been legal. But they were not.

What are the chance the officer saw someone in the REAL right lane turning right, and blocking so it was safe from folks in the impromptu right lane?

 

Chill! (hypothetically of course). I think the lane is made bigger so people can make right turns without interrupting the flow of traffic or may be for street parking. I am too chicken to pull what you hypothetically did, but I don't think it is illegal. May be the hypothetical officer got distracted by the text s/he had just received from his/her SO asking if s/he made dinner plans for their anniversary. S/he might have lost control of the vehicle upon seeing this hypothetical text and almost ran in to you. To regain his/her ego, s/he must have put the sirens for a second so people think s/he crossed two lanes for an actual reason. May be s/he is a fellow Prius driver and let you go. May be s/he saw all your mods and thought of cutting some slack for a cool dude. Hypothetically of course.

 

This is what I think, you said you are going very fast down the impromptu lane but you did not say you are exceeding the speed limit. I believe the cop is just giving you a warning by beeping the siren at you because he cannot clock your speed even though he saw you are driving at excessive speed.

The law does not say one vehicle is allowed in one lane as long as the vehicles fits in the lane safely.

 

OK, got it. A police car cut across two lanes abruptly, a very purposeful and aggressive maneuver in heavy traffic, yet failed to collect the "payoff" of all that effort by giving you a citation. Ergo, his maneuver had nothing to do with you. Something came up that required his immediate attention (a dispatch call probably) which he could not fulfill while driving, but had to fulfill immediately. He had to get out of traffic and pulled over so he could attend to that business. COINCIDENTALLY, you happened to be occupying the curbside space he needed so urgently, which surprised him, so he blipped his siren in reflex. But, as I said earlier, your maneuver was not illegal, so all he could do was grit his teeth and wait for you to get out of the way. As soon as you'd made your turn, and he could safely park on the far side of the intersection, he attended to his urgent matter, all thought of you (if there was any) pushed aside by the urgent business.

Only your guilty conscience in performing what seemed a possibly illegal maneuver led you to think the cop was reacting to you. I don't think he was. He was reacting to police business and had to act fast, hence the aggressive cut across those lanes.

 

I do this all the time to make right turns. I don't think it's unusual and I see other people doing it all the time.

One thing though sometimes when it is exceptionally a long distance, sometimes I get annoyed when people behind me have already merge to the right "virtual" lane before I do. They pass me and others start to pass and I can not merge into the right virtual lane without squeezing in.

How early should you start to move over? 100 feet sounds reasonable. I'm sure I've forgotten the correct distance as you would pick in the driving test. I usually straddle the real lane and virtual lane a bit, and then turn on my signal fairly early so traffic behind me knows not to pass me on the right until I can get into the right.

As a rule of thumb, for me, usually if traffic is stopped ahead, you can go about 25 mph in your makeshift lane. If traffic is moving forward, it's best to keep about the same speed and try to stay out of blind spots. Honestly though, sometimes I go faster than the left hand traffic, if I can.

As far as police is concerned, you shouldn't be worried because if you don't pull over, they have a loudspeaker to verbally give you instructions and if he didn't do that, then don't worry about it.

Cops here usually pulse their siren to signal they want to pull you over. A continuous siren means they have an emergency to get to and to get out of their way.

 

I always pull far enough right side of the pavement when making a right turn that another car can't try to pass me on the right as I turn. Usually about 100 feet before the turn

 

That is not my understanding of lane splitting - as far as I know it refers specifically to allow motorcycles to ride between lanes of cars in slow or stopped traffic - essentially in between the cars where the lane striping is. I do not think lane width come into play. I can not imagine that it applies to cars - if it does that would be terrifying, doubly so in the LA area - traffic and the drivers are already crazy enough there.

Just think about assigning fault in an accident. Normally they would look at who was in which lane, but if 2 cars could be in the same lane legally it would be impossible to figure out who was in the wrong. My guess with motorcycles is that if they are splitting lanes and get in an accident with a car it would be their fault (since splitting was their choice) - sort of like how the person in back is at fault in a rear-end accident.

 

Lane splitting (sharing is the preferred term because it's illegal to ride in two lanes at once except momentarily while changing lanes.

In California lane sharing isn't "allowed" it's "not forbidden". There is no law that says you can do it, there is lack of a law that says you can't.

 

Oh boy... the old 'if I don't sign the ticket, I'm not guilty' thing.

Totally false in Minnesota. The ticket is an acknowledgement that you received the ticket, and that you understand your rights as given to you by the issuing officer and as printed on the citation's back side. It states that it is NOT an acknowledgement of guilt, and that your signature of the citation is NOT an admission of guilt, NOR does it forfeit your right to appeal the citation in court. The actual wording could be different, but I seem to remember reading one once while waiting for jury duty (the fun of civil service).

By choosing not to sign it, you are not hurting the officer one bit - he/she/they will just sign it in your stead, give you a copy of the citation anyway, usually with a notation that you chose not to cooperate. Don't accept the copy? No sweat - they will mail it to you along with a photo from the dash cam from the cruiser of your car and a copy of your vehicle registration for good measure. Of course, if you fight that in court, the judge will see that notation, and usually make an example of you - giving you the max fine and/or sentence.

No offense, man - if you want to read a citation without getting one 'the usual way' - they are public documents, look them up or request a blank copy of the citation form from your local PD.

 

When making a right turn in CA, you are required to be as close as possible to the edge of the pavement or curb. It would appear that you were doing precisely that, since there was no shoulder, but rather paved roadway adjacent to the curb. You are required to be signalling the turn during the last 100' of travel.
From what you have described, you were obeying the law, and committed no violation. I seem to remember, but couldn't find the reference in the vehicle code for it, that you cannot start your turning movement by getting over to the curb more than 200' ahead of the actual turn. This would probably apply if you had to cross a marked bike lane to make the turn, although it doesn't state that in the code section for bike lanes. As long as there is no marked area prohibiting driving there, you're good doing what you did.
As for what the cop was doing, it's anyone's guess, and all the speculation gets you absolutely nowhere. If he had wanted you, he would have followed you. That's all that counts, so relax.