I got a stunting ticket in the mail. Dash cam user complained to police about me.
You guys are going to love this one. I hummed and hawed about posting this but decided to seek advice from the level headed users of Beyond.
I got home from work today and my fiancee had picked up the mail. There was an envelope there for me. I opened up to a bright yellow ticket for stunting - $543.00. It was stapled to a letter from a Community Peace Officer. There was also a clear picture stapled to that which shows me committing the offence.
So what did I do?..... I filtered between two stopped vehicles to the stop line at a red light.
Lets talk about the letter first. It states that the CPO received a written complaint regarding a vehicle registered in my name. It states how on Oct. 15 at approx 4:03pm, I was northbound on 2A. "According to witness, your vehicle (motorcycle) was seen driving between vehicles as they were stopped for the red-light intersection, facing northbound."
The picture attached to the letter is from my immediate 5 o'clock position on my right. It appears to be a screen grab of a dash-cam as it shows speed telemetry, date and time, etc. It clearly shows the rear of my bike, plate, and my back and helmet.
I tried to think back to that date. I remember filtering. I remember a dodge diesel to my immediate left, but I couldn't remember much else. EXCEPT I did remember a thread on reddit posted the same day. That post was made by a person who was also in the area that day. In fact, they happened to be behind the dodge diesel on my left... and they also took a picture of me and posted it to reddit. HERE IS THEIR PIC: https://i.redd.it/pmay42ddgss31.jpg
And then it all fell in place. The person on my right is a school bus. The picture attached to my letter appears to be from their new stop-arm cameras. Some school buses have cameras on their sides to record people driving by the bus when their stop arm is active. It looks like the school bus driver took a screen grab, cropped it, and submitted their complaint to our CPO, who then issued me a ticket thru the mail.
As most of you probably know, I'm a big supporter of lane filtering as it makes riding much safer. I got a speeding ticket early last year and decided to hire a traffic lawyer out of Red Deer because I didn't want demerits. During that time, I took the opportunity to talk about the legalities of lane filtering with him. I brought his attention to the following Regulation...
ALBERTA TRAFFIC SAFETY ACT - USE OF HIGHWAY AND RULES OF THE ROAD REGULATION.
SECTION 1 (t) “traffic lane” means
(i) outside an urban area, a longitudinal division of a
roadway into a strip of sufficient width to
accommodate the passage of a single line of vehicles
but does not include a parking lane, and
(ii) inside an urban area, a longitudinal division of a
roadway into a strip of sufficient width to
accommodate the passage of a single line of vehicles,
whether or not the division is indicated by lines on the
road surface.
He agreed that the wording makes the act of lane filtering sound very much legal. I'd like to get the ticket quashed without going to trial. Can I just go in and talk to a JOP or Crown Prosecutor? I am prepared to take it all the way to trial if need be. Court date to enter a plea is on my days off.
What do the wise minds of beyond have to say about this? Other than the few who disagree on the net safety benefit of the act of filtering itself of course....
Should I pursue this? Possible precedent setting?
