Ticket

[Anonymous]

Is this actually reasonable?

I had my cell phone in the holder on my windshield while I was driving home from work. I pull up to a red light, take my phone out of the holder, change the "route" on Waze, and put it back in the holder. It took maybe 10 seconds to do. I wait another minute or so at the red light until it turns green, and away I go. I did not touch the phone until I had come to a complete stop at the light. While I was at the light, there was a cop parallel parked on the road about a car length behind me.

All of a sudden, flashing lights behind me and I was pulled over. I had zero idea what I had done wrong, plus I've never gotten a ticket in my life. The police officer said I touched my phone while driving in DC, which is an infraction, and gave me a $100 ticket. I was very polite, explained that I hadn't been texting or otherwise using my phone while driving, and I have a hands-free holder that the phone remained in while driving. He acknowledged that, said he SAW that I didn't use my phone while driving, but that the rule is that you literally cannot touch your phone even at a red light to update the GPS and doing so will result in a ticket, not a warning.

Anyone have an experience like this? As I said, I have an excellent driving record so this really was unbelievable to me.

[Anonymous]

If you are behind the wheel, you are considered operating the vehicle, so the ticket is correct and the officer is within his rights.

HOWEVER, if you go to your court date, bring a certified copy of your clean driving record and explain, chances are excellent that the judge will throw it out or demote to nothing but a nuisance fine.

[Anonymous]

I’ve neither directly or indirectly known of anything like this.
I live in NYS and I believe we have similar laws to what you’re referring to.
Bottom line, the cop was being a jackass. And I say this as someone who really respects them.
I’d go to court and ask to be heard. I’d hope that your charges would be dismissed.
Good luck and please update us when this is over.

[Anonymous]

Similar thing happened to a friend of mine.

[Anonymous]

Picture of the ticket or it didn’t happen.

DC police don’t make traffic stops. I just don’t believe it. Almost every driver is on their phone in a way that they think is fine. It’s really not ok.

[Anonymous]

Ridiculous. If it's the law though, not much you can do. You can go to court and fight it I guess, and hope he doesn't show up, but I wouldn't waste my time.

[Anonymous]

The whole mobile map thing seems like a gray area to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve neither directly or indirectly known of anything like this.
I live in NYS and I believe we have similar laws to what you’re referring to.
Bottom line, the cop was being a jackass. And I say this as someone who really respects them.
I’d go to court and ask to be heard. I’d hope that your charges would be dismissed.
Good luck and please update us when this is over.

Why a Jackass? He's enforcing the law. He can't tell what OP is doing with her phone or not. It's distracted driving. It's irrelevant if her story (about changing route) is even true or not.

[Anonymous]

Drivers are really bad at judging what is safe or not. Just stop it with the phones. Even at red lights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole mobile map thing seems like a gray area to me.

The only allowable use of your phone while operating the vehicle is to call 911, according to the law in most states.

[Anonymous]

OP here. There are about 15 routes I can take home, and traffic changes on a dime, so I often will do a route recalculation when at a red light, and completely stopped, to confirm whether I should change routes. I didn't think this was an issue but sounds like it is so fair enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. There are about 15 routes I can take home, and traffic changes on a dime, so I often will do a route recalculation when at a red light, and completely stopped, to confirm whether I should change routes. I didn't think this was an issue but sounds like it is so fair enough.

Check out safety studies regarding use of a phone even at stop lights.

[Anonymous]

https://mpdc.dc.gov/page/distracted-driving-safety-act-2004-restrictions-mobile-phone-use-while-driving

bummer OP..... put your cell phone holder down in the cup holder below the belt line of the car so cops can't see you adjust your route while stopped.

law states that you can pull over and make adjustments. but you must pull over.

the time i takes to sit in court and fight it and beg for mercy would be a hard sell for me. Pay the hundred, and skip starbucks for a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve neither directly or indirectly known of anything like this.
I live in NYS and I believe we have similar laws to what you’re referring to.
Bottom line, the cop was being a jackass. And I say this as someone who really respects them.
I’d go to court and ask to be heard. I’d hope that your charges would be dismissed.
Good luck and please update us when this is over.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

[Anonymous]

Retired urban cop here. We didn’t have this law when I was working, but there were other traffic laws that we were authorized to enforce. Generally, we didn’t though. We had all we could handle taking care of serious issues and if we had co-workers making traffic stops they were often chastised by other cops. When a serious call came in god help the cop that was on a speeding stop. We had a traffic division and we let them handle those issues. I doubt much has changed since I was on. Most often it was a rookie cop that was making traffic stops. I think they just liked to turn on their sirens.