A ticket for talking on Mobile Phone on a bike!?

It’s bad enough that California now has a law that prohibits talking on a mobile phone without a bluetooth device, but you won’t believe what my daughter just got a ticket for! She was riding her bicycle on a downtown street, cruising along slowly, talking on her cell phone. Next she knows, she’s pulled over and given a $92 ticket. Now, I’ve got tremendous respect for the police and give them my full support, but this was over the line. Not only does the law he cited not apply to a bicycle (some argue bicycles must follow those laws, but that was not this law’s intent), the fine was not even close to the $20 first offense fine that is supposed to be attached to it. And this was during the first month of the new law when you’d think they should be concentrating on extracting money from drivers of cars. Instead, this idiot of an officer, pulls over a respectable looking college student on her bike.

So, angered, my daughter makes an appointment at the court to contest it. I went with her to watch the proceedings. We arrived there for our “appointment” and see that there are about 80 others lining the hallways with the same appointment. At 9:00 a.m., an officer came out of the court and said it is so full that no companions are allowed in. That’s fine since I was not going to interfere and let her present her case, but I was interested in seeing “justice at work.”

A couple hours later she called me to report that the judge was rude, not in interested in really looking at the law and simply reduced the fee to $25, still above a first offense fee, if she had in fact been driving a car in the first place. She told me the deadline to pay was that day and asked if she should pay it. In the interest, of time and our sanity, there was not really any rational choice other than to pay it, so she did.

Look, before you get all over me about how it’s stupid to talk on the phone while riding a bike, I agree, and I’ve told her. But, it’s not like she committed a real crime. The higher offense was the overreaching police officer out for blood. And I was happy she wanted to fight it.

Don’t get me started about this stupid law. I predict more people will get in accidents trying to get those damn bluetooth devices to work each and every time. They are a pain in the ass. I can certainly drive just fine holding the phone in one hand and voice dialing. It’s safer than fumbling around the car trying to make the not-ready-for-primetime gadgets work, or trying to sneak in a speaker phone call when the bluetooth battery is dead. Another “good intention” from Big Brother that will have the reverse effect.

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