My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California
At around 9 PM I made a right turn from a residential street onto a main road, and instead of turning directly into the closest right lane, I just eased myself into the left lane as there were no cars or pedestrians around and I needed it for a turn into the gas station at the nearby intersection (the residential street is at the crest of a hill, so I had great vision in either direction). I had just turned into the gas station when I noticed that a police officer had turned on their lights and entered after me. She said that I needed to turn into the right lane first, and then signal to turn into the left lane instead of turning into it directly. She then said that it is a common driving mistake, and said that if there had been people walking across the street, I could have endangered them if they assumed I was turning into the lane I was supposed to and decided to continue crossing. (the main road has no center dividers and no crosswalk; its just a simple 2-lane-in-each-direction road separated by a yellow line. If there WERE people crossing, it would be jaywalking anyway). She then went into what I assume to be the normal line of questioning they give, asking to see whats inside of my car's trashbag, where I was going, have I been drinking, am I involved in gangs, etc. (I have never been pulled over before, so i assume it was her just being thorough, considering the neighborhood is near the bad side of town)
I waited until received the courtesy notice in the mail to see the amount to determine if it would even be worth fighting, and it is over 200 dollars! Paying this amount and going to traffic school seems excessive, is there any way I can fight this?

