Pasco County traffic tickets for the USF bicycle team.
The University of South Florida bicycle racing team is in the middle of a small traffic ticket related controversy.
Five members of the team were recently issued traffic tickets for impeding traffic. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office issuing officer commented that there were so many complaints about this particular riding group that “we had to do something”.
The five have retained a Florida traffic ticket lawyer to fight the tickets.
There are a few issues potentially involved. The speed, the width of the lanes, interpretation of concepts such as driving as far to the right as “practicable”–all could potentially be part of the judge’s analysis.
While such issues really are typical to a traffic court judge, the interesting thing here is that it’s the rare case that a number of people will be following and will rely on as precedence moving forward.
Technically, the case itself should simply be about whether a violation was committed the day and time in question. In reality, the judge will be casting support for one particular side. He’s either sending a message to the bicyclists that they are expected to yield to motorists or to the motorists that they are expected to yield to the bicyclists.
Or perhaps a plea will be reached and nothing at all settled. We’ll have to wait.
Submitted by Scott Feifer
Laura Kinsler’s original story here
