If you don’t mind paying court costs and the fine and you have time… Show up for court and see if the policeman that issued you the ticket shows up. If he/she didn't then the Judge can't convict you and must throw out the case. If the policeman is there you're screwed. It's very common for the policeman not to show up. They're not getting paid to be there and considering most people just mail in the fine as they don’t have time to fight there case the policeman usually get away with not showing up. At this point you can tell the Judge you'll be serving jail time instead of the fine if you can really afford to spend time in jail. Being retired I can do that and get away with it. Jails are notoriously overcrowded and the jail must care for you while you're in it. This can become extremely expensive especially if you have (expensive) health problems like me. Last time I got a ticket and let the Judge know I would be occupying space in the jail instead of paying the fine the Judge threw out the case and talked to me harshly about obeying traffic laws on my bicycle.