Ooops,

I got pulled over last night for the first time ever by a traffic cop whilst on my motorbike. I was riding in the bike lane to leapfrog the rush-hour traffic - no argument about it, I took a gamble and lost.

"Can I see your licence ?" "Sure ... ( passes CA drivers licence to officer )"

"Erm, you don't appear to have a motorcycle endorsement on this licence ... you're riding this bike without a licence ... ( whips out citation book and writes ticket )"

Me thinks : "Oooh shit". I completely forgot all about doing the bike test after I passed the car test within weeks of arriving in the US. After I bought the bike I insured it through a broker on my UK driving licence ( with valid bike endorsement ) - it cost a bit more but it got me out on the road immediately. I was told that my UK licence would be good for 12 months for the bike anyway. I obviously had a complete brainfart and forgot all about it - until last night. Had I shown him my UK licence I think I would still have got the ticket as I've now been here for more than 12 months.

So my question to the group is : the citation has the "infraction" box ticked for both the licence and the bike lane naughty deeds - am I likely to have my car driving licence revoked for a period of time when I appear at the local court in a month or so, or am I more likely to get a slap on the wrist and a whack in the wallet ?

Quite frankly, I'm cacking myself that I'll get banned as I need my car for commuting to work ( public transportation or car pooling is not an option ).

Help !

This is america, you don't get banned from driving. Even if you are caught drink driving and get your license taken away for a year you are still allowed to drive between 7am and 11pm to work and back and for essential journeys.

Of course every state is different but it is not in the American thought process to ban people from driving, they don't even make people over 80 retake a test every year, thus if you go to Florida be prepared to avoid 80 year old drivers!

In America driving is seen as a right and not a priveledge whereas in the uk it is definatly a privaledge. I doubt you will lose your license in any shape or form, just get some points and maybe a fine. Your insurance may go up though (american - I didn't understand that bit, how could you be insured through the UK?) but even then they offer you a safe driving course and your points go away, americans, won't take responsibility for anything.

Patrick

What does the CA DMV website say? That site would probably be a good place to start.

If the Driver's Handbook or equivalent is online, there's probably a section that describes the fines, etc. for the citation you received.

You will probably get fined and have to go to traffic school, which is fun, a whole day of listening to some pompous fart drone on.

I don't live in Calafornia!

shame on you for riding in the bike line!
if you do get banned maybe you should start riding a push bike and see what it's like from the perspective of the hapless cyclist...

:scared:

I've been banned from driving for 6 months and wouldn't wish it on anybody!

Cycling 35 miles a day to work along busy 'A' Roads was a blast! :scared:

I hope everything works itself out for you Mark!


Simon T.

You can ride those 49cc mopeds over here without a licence. Is it the same your end ? Just thinking you could grab one of them in the meantime.
They are restricted to 30mph, but got to be better than peddling.

I think I worded my last post incorrectly (should have been past tense). My ban was from Aug 1999 through to Feb 2000... On the plus side, my name was not in the hat to be drawn as the designated driver during New Year 2000!

Whatever the case, being banned was a pretty poor experience which I do not recommend to anybody if they can avoid it!

Thanks to everyone for their feedback, I feel a lot happier now that I'm not going to get "grounded".

For lau3rie : Although I've confessed to being a law-breaker, I'm not the hooligan type that roars past cyclists in the bike lane, I fully appreciate the exposure to danger that you guys feel ( I'm a fair-weather weekend pedaller myself ). In fact, I have always ducked back into traffic when coming up on "legal" users of the bike lane, be it in the UK or here in CA.

For CitySimon & Webbie : My commute is 100 miles a day roundtrip ! Even a moped would be pushing it in terms of time, and the pedal bike is definitely out ( ouch ! CitySimon, you must have suffered badly from numb-nuts )

For NC Penguin : Thanks for the link, I will go there as you suggest. My initial post was more of an emotional boo-hoo to anyone that would listen.

And for Patrick : Thanks for the boost, that was just what I wanted to hear. And I will avoid Florida, though not just for the elderly drivers !!

Now that I've calmed down a bit I'd like to pass on the second half of the story :

After writing me the ticket the bike-cop tells me that he could, if he so desired, make me a pedestrian on the spot and impound the bike. :scared: :scared: Then he said that we was leaving now as he couldn't let me get back on my bike and drive away in his presence and that it would be a good idea if I got a bike licence PDQ, nudge nudge wink wink, know what I mean ( OK, he didn't do the Monty Python impression but you get the drift ).

I took from that last cryptic message that if I show the judge that I've made every effort to correct the situation then that might mitigate my punishment. What a nice man !!

haha, ok, maybe you can be considered as a decent human after all
i just get very sick of rich ivy league kids flashing up their giant SUVs in the bike line, or hailing homicidal taxi drivers etc. etc, so sometimes i get a little erm, hostile, towards motorised vehicle users (and annoying pedestrians) of all kinds.
to be fair, i suppose you could *almost* get away with pretending to be really stupid and claiming that you thought you were allowed to ride motorbikes in the bike lane - I'm sure you wouldn't be the first.

And so we come to the perspective of the 'hapless cyclist'... the same hapless cyclists who made my driving life a misery for years in the UK... cycling the wrong way on one way streets... having no regard for traffic lights at all... skipping onto the pavement and playing 'dodge' with pedestrians whenever something impeded them...

If you want to be treated like a road user, START ACTING LIKE ONE!

GJB

>> maybe you should start riding a push bike and see what it's like from the perspective of the hapless cyclist...

I actually got knocked over by a cyclist.......as I stepped off a bus!! :scared: :scared:
The traffic was slow moving, and when the bus stopped at the stop to let me off, the b****** decided to overtake on the inside. The daft thing was, my first reaction was to say "ooh sorry!" for the collision.

i do act like a road user....I happily ride 4 blocks out of my way to make sure I'm not heading the wrong way down one-ways, and if I have to get up on the pavement I get off my bike and walk. And I stop at traffic lights - more than can be said for taxi drivers.