"Cyrus Invades" Ride: Sunday, Oct. 4

[desmoquattro]

One ticket with two citations.  

First:  S. on Guerrero @18th.  Cars were stopped.  I signalled and went by on the right, intending to turn right.  I saw him parked at the bakery.  He looked at me.  I looked at him.  And I turned right.  Citation--failure to safely pass on the right?  

Second:  Next block.  Heading W on 18th, turning left on Dolores.  He said I split pedestrians in the crosswalk, both walking away from me and toward me.  In fact, he said that I just barely missed hitting them.  As a factual matter, that's just wrong.  I checked for peds coming toward me and there weren't any.  There was one ped walking away from me, but he'd almost made the sidewalk when I began the turn and was out of the crosswalk when I entered the crosswalk.  He had to have been at least half a block back, so I'm not sure what the heck he thinks he saw. Citation--failure to yield to pedestrians.

He pulled me over two blocks later on 20th and Dolores (after I'd stopped at another crosswalk to let peds go by) and cited me for both the right turn and the crosswalk.  I told him that I wasn't going to argue with him, but that it wasn't what happened (re the peds).  Re the right hand turn, I told him that I didn't know what I did wrong.  After all that, he told me that it was illegal to have one mirror on the left side.  I told him the Vehicle Code says it's ok and that I wouldn't run it if it were illegal.  He was going to ticket me no matter what, but he didn't cite me for that.  There was some other thing that I don't remember that he pointed out on my bike that he said was a violation.  It wasn't.  Grrrrr.  

There are lots of tickets I deserve and normally SFPD are really cool about what they ticket.  Those two violations are BS.  Time for trial by declaration.

Sounds like utter BS. Like his patrol sgt. told the shift to crack down on bikes or make quota. Now if we could just get them to expend that kind of energy getting rid of the gangs in my neighborhood...

Good luck fighting it.

[cyrus buelton]

Warren,

You are an attorney and probably know plenty of prosecutors.

Play your cards 

[mostrobelle]

Glad you had a good time out here on our turf,  Cyrus.  You should have taken my bike out for a spin.  You aren't a 200 lb. bruiser...I could have taken you pillion for a bit, too.  Not sure you would have liked the trip down 1 from Stinson though...a little bumpy here and there and lots of 600' cliffs.   I love me some goaty roads though.    Be careful with the splitting.  Yeah, we've all tapped a mirror or two, but sometimes the cars bite back.   

That suuuucks about the ticket(s), Spidey.    

[ROBsS4R]

I think we all agree here that when we get pulled over for doing something stupid we deserve the ticket and take it with no complaints but I hate it when we get pulled over just for the hell of it etc.

Wonder what the odds are of winning this? Isn't it his word against yours? I mean what sort of evidence can you prove otherwise in the court?

[Spidey]

Wonder what the odds are of winning this? Isn't it his word against yours? I mean what sort of evidence can you prove otherwise in the court?

Dunno what the odds are.  If it's his word against mine (which it is), that likely does not meet the burden of showing beyond a reasonable doubt.  But that's just theory.  In practice, I assume that they just chuck the burden of proof out the window and take the officer's word most of the time.  But we'll see how it plays out.     It's just a PITA to deal with.     

I wish I wasn't barred from having the ticket get "lost."   

[Drunken Monkey]

belle's led a blazin' romp on the way back through the racetrack and then up the cliffs of Hwy 1.   

Ruined for me by no less than three different oncoming cars crossing the double yellow into my lane. Gave me the heebie jeebies and totally sapped me of confidence 

[thunderpuppy]

Nice ride y'all. Nice to meet Cyrus... a fellow flat lander from Ohio.
Thanks to "Blazin" Belle for a fine sporting pace with the fast group.   

[Grampa]

^...he he... the man fighting the man 

[cyrus buelton]

Glad you had a good time out here on our turf,  Cyrus.  You should have taken my bike out for a spin.  You aren't a 200 lb. bruiser...I could have taken you pillion for a bit, too.  Not sure you would have liked the trip down 1 from Stinson though...a little bumpy here and there and lots of 600' cliffs.   I love me some goaty roads though.    Be careful with the splitting.  Yeah, we've all tapped a mirror or two, but sometimes the cars bite back.   

That suuuucks about the ticket(s), Spidey.    

ooooo, I would have loved riding pillion with you through the section Spidey called "the race track"

damn, I wish I had more time!!

[Spidey]

Ruined for me by no less than three different oncoming cars crossing the double yellow into my lane. Gave me the heebie jeebies and totally sapped me of confidence 

Three?!?  Yoikes.  I read that as a sign from above that it's time to end your ride, go home and be thankful nothing worse happened. 

I just can't figure out why it's so difficult for cars to use the make the beast with two backsING TURNOUTS!!!

[cyrus buelton]

I noticed cars were VERY respectful of those turnouts.

wish we had those back home, but asshole Ohio drivers wouldn't use them anyway.

but shit, that would be scary. There isn't much room for margin of error on those roads

[Spidey]

I noticed cars were VERY respectful of those turnouts.

In general they are.  But there's a part of Hwy 1 just north of SF that you didn't ride that we took on the way home.  It's a super tight twisties with 500 foot cliff drops into the ocean (talk about no margin for error).  There are no straightaways and it's blind turn after blind turn.  That's where cars are particularly bad about not using the turnouts, mostly because it's a buncha tourists who don't know any better or f'n hippies in Priuses (which apparently don't come with rearview mirrors).  If you get stuck behind one of them, it's nearly impossible to get around 'em. 

[mostrobelle]

Ruined for me by no less than three different oncoming cars crossing the double yellow into my lane. Gave me the heebie jeebies and totally sapped me of confidence 

Yuck... Sorry to hear that.  I was actually surprised at the lack of oncoming traffic.  There was a Porsche that I thought might be a challenge--that wasn't--to pass and a Prius that drove with the "I'm driving the speed limit, therefore I don't need to pull over" attitude.  That was about it until we were just outside of Mill Valley.  The last few miles into town were a little painful at the pace we were forced to go    but it just wasn't worth the risk at that point, and I noticed that we were starting to string out a little anyways. 

[Spidey]

I thought the Porsche was gonna a problem too as he was movin' at a decent clip and looked like he wanted to play.  But he pulled over quickly, let us by and then didn't chase us down and blow our wheels off (which he coulda done easily -- the stability of 4 wheels on those twisties inspires a lot of confidence).  Thanks, Porsche guy.      And boo to all Prius drivers.  You suck. <middle finger>

BTW, thanks for letting me rope you into leading the fast group, 'belle. 

[mostrobelle]

BTW, thanks for letting me rope you into leading the fast group, 'belle. 

No problem.  I need to start stepping up more.  Seems like the same guys have all lead for years. I appreciate how challenging it can be trying to keep the quick guys up front happy and not risk the necks of the guys bringing up the rear.  It definitely shaves a little of the fun factor off for me but I hope that lessens as I get used to it.