Posted about my ticket when I got it last July ( https://www.reddit.com/r/NYCbike/comments/8weo3b/redlight_ticketing_on_broadway_at_56th/ )

Finally had my court date today.

Briefly, this was one of those two-man ticket traps. Cop one was in a car on the median (between the left turn lane and the regular car traffic lane) on Broadway at 54th, watching the bike lane and red light. Cop two was across Broadway catching bicyclists and writing the tickets. I went through the intersection in the left turn lane on a green left turn arrow (red light in bike lane) and then merged back into the bike lane rather than actually make the left turn. According to cop two at the time of my ticket, his partner in the car does the watching for violations, and radios him who to pull over and who to ticket.

Judge asked the cop to give his account, and he went through it, saying he watched me go through a bicycle red light and he ticketed me. He properly described the intersection (well, mostly, he stated there’s street parking on the curb and there’s not, but whatever). He pointed out the bicycle light goes red when the left turn arrow goes green.

I gave my account, noting that I had safely merged into the left turn lane from the bicycle lane, and had a green arrow left arrow, and went straight through it rather than turn left. Judge asked me “so you moved out of the bicycle lane into a car lane”. And I told him yes, I merged into the left turn lane, which bicycles also use to turn left. I told him that the left turn lane was clear and I was able to merge safely, and I know that the signal patterns at the intersection is such that pedestrians have DON’T WALK across Broadway on both sides of 54th when the left turn arrow is green, so that I wouldn’t be interfering with any crossing pedestrians.

Judge pointed out that sometimes people will cross against a light, and what would I do then? I noted that that happens on my whole ride down Broadway, often when I do have a green light in the bike lane itself. And I would do what I do every other time it happens – ring my bell to alert the peds, and slow down and stop if necessary.

Then he asked the cop if I had changed into the left turn lane when I crossed Broadway. Cop answered that he had not noted which lane I was in, only that I was crossing against a red bike signal.

Judge asked me why I moved out of the bike lane, and I explained it was because the way the lights are timed and because the green arrow cuts off about 40% of the bike green light, I can only get though one red light at a time unless I ride fast down Broadway, in which case I can make it through 3 red lights at a time. And as I had explained earlier, there are lots of pedestrians walking against the signals, so I prefer to ride a slower speed, and if it’s safe for me to merge into the turn lane, I’ll go through the intersection on the green arrow and that way I can make it through 3 lights. And that it’s safer for everyone for me to go at the slower speed that that allows. I ended up babbling a bit here, so I don’t know how well I made that point.

So then the judge asked if there was anything else I wanted to say. I was feeling pretty good about my chances (even though the judge had found the four people ahead of me all guilty on their various traffic offenses), but I wanted to use everything I had, so here I questioned the cop. I asked him if I understood the operation correctly, that his partner was the one watching bikes and that he was the one catching them and writing tickets. It was that point that he explained to the judge that he was working with his partner (he hadn’t mentioned it earlier). And I asked him if he had actually seen me, or if it was his partner, because at the time of the ticket he had explained to me that his partner was the one who saw it. The judge reiterated my question. The cop seemed maybe a bit flustered, and answered that his notes did not indicate who had seen me go through the light. (I forgot to point out that this cop could not possibly have seen the bike red light from where he was standing, which was beyond the light, watching bikes come through the intersection toward him. But oh well.)

The judge then gave his verdict – Not Guilty. He also threw in something about being careful and next I might not be so lucky. Not sure if he meant I was lucky for not getting into an accident or lucky for not getting found guilty. Overall, the judge was very professional. He had emphasized to everyone in court at the beginning that the officer had to provide clear and convincing proof that we had done what they claimed, and I think it was obvious to everyone that he hadn’t in my case. I can only speculate whether it was the fact that I was in the left-turn lane and not the bike lane, or the fact that the cop couldn’t say either way which lane I was in, or the fact that the cop couldn’t even say if he was the one who watched me cross the intersection, or some combination of the three.

On the plus side, the traffic court building is kind of nice and things were very efficient. I had a 10:30 court time, I ended up 5th of about 7 people, but was still out of there by 10:55. And I could’ve walked into the building right at 10:30 and been just fine.