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If it cost you nothing more to go to court, and your wages will not suffer from the absence then go to court.
I once stopped and asked a motorcycle cop if it was ok for me the P&G on a 4 lane, non divided highway with relatively low traffic volume. I told him I was testing a driving technique that required significant variables in speed. He said just use your emergency flashers to let other drivers know you are not driving in a normal fashion.
If you want to win the case.
Got to the same stretch of road and do a traffic count, same time, same day of the week and weather conditions, same circumstances. In Va the drivers manual recommends reducing speed by 50% in bad weather conditions. Are bicycles allowed on the side of the road where you were ticketed?
I had a cop tell me that I was supposed to sit at an intersection and be hit in the rear end and possibly permanently injured, rather than try to get out of the way of a vehicle that was out of control and certainly was about to hit my car at a relatively high speed. This was in a driving class, so his position was official.
I told him that when danger threatened me I had the right to self preservation that overwhelmed any traffic laws. In other words I have the right to protect my life. I also have the right to go to court and plead my position before and judge, not a cop.
Cops issue summons to appear. Fools allow cops to become judge and jury, unless they just screwed up and don't want to be embarrassed in court, or suffer greater punishment.
I have done very well in the few instances when this was necessary, actually having a reckless charge (80+in a 55 zone) tossed after I explained the circumstances to the judge.
If it cost you nothing to present your case then go to court. If you are guilty of an offense that you were unaware of then explain the circumstances and explain what you did to prevent being "any obstruction to the flow of traffic". If the traffic count is a low number and your preventative measures were obvious to those who went around you, then you may prevail, even though you were not legal. Look the man (or woman) in the eye, state you case clearly without anger, aggravation, or any other negatives, just the facts as you interpreted them.
The judge will take every effort you have made to convince him you are innocent of any intentional offense, especially something like the time and energy to do a traffic count. DO NOT criticize the officer, COMPLIMENT him on his diligence in observing your erratic driving. Explain the the judge that you are a safe driver who generally goes slower than the traffic flow and gets astounding mileage out of your huge truck, probably twice the average, and something you are proud of and have spent time to perfect.
"Your honor, I was performing and experiment to determine if it would improve my mileage. I was very cognizant of my not interruptiong the flow of traffic and I was not aware of the minimum speed limitation on that particular stretch of road. Had I known ANY of my actiuons could be interpreted as illegal, I would never have considered such actions. Thank you for the time to allow me to explain this."
When you say this look him squarely in the eye, don't blink rapidly, don't flinch, and don't sweat.
Explain to him that you did not realize that there was a minimum speed, since none was posted. The officer corrected that mistake on your part. HUMILITY will go light years towards your charges being reduced, you declared innocent, or some other more positive result. UNDER NO circumstances show the least amount of respect for the courts time or towards anyone.
I'd bet you win, if you want to call any time spent in court a win.
regards
Mech
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