Emergency Stopping Only Ticket (2014, living in, law)

[izlowe]

5-8-2014 I received a ticked at 5:54 yesterday while waiting to get in the HOV. Has anyone every challenged this ticket

[gomason]

No, but its a perfectly legit ticket. You are not allowed to do that and I've read in the Post about them ticketing that.

[Mike From NIU]

I agree with gomason. It is actually very dangerous. Some of the cars that line up in the emergency shoulder near the Pentagon don't completely clear the travel lanes. I am frankly surprised that there aren't more accidents from drivers doing this.

Honestly, instead of parking on the shoulder for 10 minutes or so, why not travel down the regular lanes until the next merge into the HOV? You'll be further down the road when the HOV lanes do open, so you'll end up saving time. Or, depending on where you're heading, pick up a slug or two and don't worry about the time.

Now, to answer your question, I am sure that people have challenged this ticket before. However, I doubt they've won. I mean, what defense do you have?

[boyd888]

You aren't going to beat the ticket because it's a very cut and dry type of ticket. People have been lining up to enter the HOV lanes right as they open since the 90s and it is a cat and mouse game with the police as the practice is illegal. You were one of the unlucky ones.

[paulbunyan]

Wasn't your car running hot before you pulled over though?

He who has the best argument ALWAYS wins

I

[airjay75]

Glad to hear they ticket people like you. Whenever I see the cars parked on the shoulder waiting to get in the HOV lanes, I think about how dangerous that is and hope that the police actually ticket those people sometimes. I know it's tough not to follow the law when you're only concerned about yourself and not the safety of others, but, occasionally, you're going to get caught and have to pay the consequences.

[smarterguy]

Originally Posted by airjay75

Glad to hear they ticket people like you.

I agree 100%.

Needlessly dangerous. Get off the frickin' shoulder.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by paulbunyan

Wasn't your car running hot before you pulled over though?

He who has the best argument ALWAYS wins

I

Use that excuse in court and considering where the ticket was issued the judge will slam you. They get tired of hearing the lies in such obvious cases.

[johnsonkk]

Got the same ticket couple years ago and got another for driving in hov. My comments to the judge was that a driver can't be ticketed for parking and driving at the same time. Judge agreed and i got the parking ticket. Judge said something along the line about safety, etc. The only question was how long had I been living in NOVA. Got the impression there might be wiggle room if you were new. I told judge too that I never knew it was wrong but as we know, ignorance doesn't matter. I was pinched by getting both tickets at same time and I was just happy getting hov violation dropped. If you go, you might get ticket reduced. If the state police really saw this as dangerous, they would ticket much more aggressively.

[Grsz11]

People that do this really **** me off. At least one benefit of the Express Lanes that this practice will stop.