My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: New York
Well, I was driving on Grand St. directly behind a tourist bus and made a right turn from Grand St. onto Bowery St and was immediately pulled over by a stopped NYPD Traffic vehicle and issued 2 tickets!!! 1110A and 1111A2 (or something like that). Both said "disobeying green arrow sign", and she explained that one was for disobeying the steady straight green arrow (which prohibits you from turning) and the other one for disobeying the "no turn" sign.
But, here is the thing. Both the "no turn" sign and the "green arrow" were recently added on. It used to be just a steady green light and without the "no turn" sign posted because I, and many other drivers used to turn there all the time. It was a very crowded intersection with lots of pedestrian so I guess that's why they put up these new rules. However, I have been away from the city for the past 3 months so I did not realize that these new rules and signs were there. In addition, the bus that was right in front of me was blocking the "no turn" sign so there was no way to see the sign. To make the situation even worse, it was 9:23AM in the morning and there weren't many pedestrians soI made a smooth turn. During the normal time of the day there would be a lot of pedestrians and I would have to stop to yield for the pedestrians and would definitely see the sign. (The "no turn" sign was not posted under or near the traffic light as they usually are, instead it was posted in a pole under the "manhattan bridge" sign on the right hand side sidewalk which was blocked off by the bus).
As for the green arrow, it wasn't there a while ago so when the bus moved I moved without taking a careful look at the sign but did realize that it was green. (We were both stopped by the red light in the intersection; the bus was the first on line and I was second, so when the bus moved I took a quick glance at the light and made the turn, not knowing the straight green arrow and not seeing the "no turn" sign.)
As soon as I made the turn I was pulled away by an NYPD officer with her car parked on the curb and already issuing tickets. It took her at least 15 minutes to write me my tickets because there was a line!!! Right after me she pulled away at least 4 more vehicles and they formed a line behind my vehicle (some got away because she couldn't get em all, and some that made a "left turn" also got away). So, every two cycle of stop lights or so there was someone that got pulled over this morning between Grand St. and Bowery St.
Apparently she was there all morning to issue tickets, and everybody got 2 tickets!!! One for the green arrow and one for the no turn sign, which is essentially telling the same thing. My question is, if I go back and purposely follow another bus and take pictures of the bus blocking the signs and mentioning that this is a new rules and we didn't didn't notice it or have enough time to notice it while we're turning, is it possible to fight it off? If not, can I at least get it down to one ticket instead of 2? It's 3 pts for each so would be 6 pts for one single violation. Apparently this officer isn't ethical at all!


