Recently, I conducted 14 informal interviews with police officers I work with and was disappointed, disheartened and disbelieving by their reactions to certain questions. Virtually every one of them immediately went on the attack, but the oldest officer who claimed to be a former traffic and bicycle cop was the most surprising. He really made me question whether he was telling me the truth about being either. He asserted that sharing the road meant sharing a lane. I advised him that the HTA (Highway Traffic Act) expressly forbid that, reminding him that cyclists are advised to ride 1 metre out from the curb and that vehicles must give 1 metre on the cyclists left and may only pass if they are fully within the lane, not straddling. If they cannot, they are required by law to completely change lanes. He promptly asked 'then why does it say cyclists need to ride as far to the right as practicable?' I advised he was confusing his types of roads: on two lane divided roads, cyclists are ASKED to ride as far to the right as PRACTICABLE as a courtesy, but are allowed to take up as much of the lane as necessary for safety reasons. he pounced on that and claimed we would be impeding traffic, wherein I replied, no we're not as we ARE traffic and are travelling at an appropriate speed for our vehicle. I asked him where on the road signage does it state the MINIMUM speed and suggested that many vehicles travel at lower speeds: tractors, large trucks, road-cleaning and snow-removal equipment. I then asked why, if he believed cyclists were impeding traffic, did he not give himself and every cyclist he saw, including his fellow bike cops tickets for failing to share the road and impeding traffic?
Cops are often more ignorant or out of date with traffic laws and the cop that stopped you may have been as well, but he was right about one thing: if you were riding at night, you definitely need a light. More importantly, he should have ticketed the pick-up driver as, by your description, he purposely passed illegally and unsafely and made no attempt to respect your right to the road or the lane.