Improper Left Turn in NYC

[nydave]

My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of NYS, NYC to be specific.

I was in the right lane on a one way road with two lanes approaching a light. I couldn't merge before the light changed. I stayed back several feet from the intersection to leave space to merge before turning left.

Light turned green, I had to wait for two cars in left lane to go before I had a chance to start to merge over. Mid-way through merge the office pulled me over (he had set up a trap at the intersection). Any advice?

TIA!

[Mr. Knowitall]

Why couldn't you have merged earlier?

How is an officer's observing you commit a traffic violation a "trap"?

[nydave]

There's a left exit off the roadway shortly before the intersection. Traffic for that exit backs up (and often takes up two lanes because of people trying to cut in). The traffic not going left there (like me) end up moving over to get around it. On this particular day, there wasn't enough room for me to merge back over.

I say trap, because he parked his cruiser along the route the left-turners normally take (on the perpendicular road) partially blocking traffic. (At this intersection, after turning left, there is another light about 10-15 car lengths away. Traffic builds up two cars wide, but his cruiser was blocking the second column of cars.) Thus only a handful of cars could make it through the intersection, making traffic conditions far worse than usual.