Yeah that "cop's don't show up" thing doesn't happen so much anymore. I think 1 out of 10 people I know who have gone to court over a ticket has had it backfire. I don't like gambling, nor those odds.

I was involved in a nasty car crash (t-boned by a logging truck) in West Virginia. Long story short, they lied and said that I ran a stop sign. When my lawyer step-mom asked the judge over the phone what the fine was for said infraction and his reply was something like $40 her eyes got very big and she ended telling me to just take it. It would have been far more trouble to go back down to WV from MI to fight the whole thing, etc.

Essentially, take it. Let's all work to reform these silly one-size-fits-all traffic laws and make some sensible ones that make more sense for and reward users of non-motorized vehicles.