I got a helmet ticket today coming out of a building. Only messengers have to wear helmets for some reason here. The cop was on a Segway and wearing a helmet which I thought was funny. What's their top speed, 5 mph?

I think it's like 15-20.

I passed a double parked cop car on Broadway and got hit with a smoke he flicked out the window. I turned and called him a mother****ing *******, like I would anyone hitting me with trash thrown from their window.

He turns on the lights and sirens and guns it beside me, screaming to pull over. I kept saying no and rode for 3 blocks like that. Finally, he cuts me off and I jump on the sidewalk ready to bolt. He yells to wait, and I ask why and he says... "I just wanted to say I am really sorry".

Wow; best story yet. :)

I've never been pulled over on a bike so far. We'll see if that changes now that I'm biking a ton more than I was even a few months ago.

Then he billyclubbed the **** out of you.

I've been stopped twice by the California Highway Patrol. Once I was doing 40 down the Baker Grade on I-15 in a fully faired recumbent. He called. "It is illegal to drive on the shoulder." I replied, " do you see the bike chain going around the pulley by the rear wheel?" "Oh, its a bike, Sorry, have fun." And he drove off. Met him and his partner later by the Mad Greek in Baker and showed him the machine.

A week later I was stopped as I started to get on the 101 in Petaluma. "You can't ride on this road." I showed him the copy of the DOT map that said I could. After some grumbling he let me go.

this has happened multiple times and when I say multiple, I mean 5 since I have been in LA. But the Yes Sir, gets them everytime or maybe it is the fact that I give them what they want.

I was coming down fifth ave. when this car comes right up on my *ss and just lays on the horn. So without even looking to see who it is I raise up my middle finger and shout out a "**** you!" Well then the police lights come on and I realize that what I assumed was a cab is a cop. I'm thinking about running but then I think about how my friends are always telling me that one of these days they are going to catch up and arrest me or worse take my bike. So for the first time ever I decide to stop and take my punishment. And just as I stop, some stupid bus driver on the cross street decides to try to make the light only to get stuck blocking traffic. And the best part is it is one of those long buses that is like two buses put together and he is blocking the whole of fifth ave., every lane. So I shoot around the bus giving the cop a friendly 'sorry not tonight' wave. I head back to the office to share my story with my coworkers, some of whom again chided me for running but none the less congratulated me on my victorious escape.

yeah, there's just something magical about the effects of politeness on somebody who has what basically amounts to the ****tiest customer service job on earth...

yeah, twice. I live in a university town, so the cops here are usually too worried about drunk underage kids to pull over bikes.
I pulled a 90 turn onto a sidewalk that runs between two buildings at about 1am, actually going to one of the bildings to do some work, all lit up front, back, and helmet. Cop was on foot and shouted "hold on there son" and shone his mag-lite on me. I stopped and dismounted and explained myself, and he was cool about it and said "at least you've got all the other stuff to make you legal for the road". but he told me never to ride down there again. Which of course I have, every day since.
I also ran a red and got pulled. I was making a left and actually stopped and waited through 2 cycles, but finally just figured '**** it, I'll just yield on green next time around' and did, but I didn't get 100 yards on the other side before I was pulled. Still don't know where the cop came from, but I didn't have a front light yet because my bike had been stolen the week before and I hadn't gotten all the stuff for the 'new' on yet.
I got a 10 minute lecture, but lots of 'yes sir, no sir' and I got off. I break so many traffic laws that i'm surprised I haven't actually been ticketed, but now I scan before doing anything blatant.

did i forget to mention that part? :D

I actually said it without thinking, and I refused to pull over cause I was terrified. oh well.

The "yes sir" routine is where is at.

got a 250$ ticket for proceeding cross a red light

So many "I got pulled over because I had no lights" stories. Why don't you people have lights?

ouch. here in austin? I bust about twenty red lights on my work commute every day.

its about the wrong place at the wrong time...nobody abides traffic rules in NYC (cars included), but if the right cop is around...

i just sent out my f'n ticket/payment yesterday, and even though i know its pointless, i included a letter basically begging for a fine reduction and *****ing about ny-ped...i wasn't gonna but then i saw a cop car with the CPR slogan on the way to work and really just felt like writing "and the ticketing officer lacked Courtesy Professionalism and Respect"...so I ask, who's the big winner now?

i commute through the capitol grounds every day and get stopped and lectured once a month about something or other. my favorite is this one cop, who tells me to ride on the sidewalk if i'm on the road, and to ride on the road if i'm on the sidewalk. he's friendly about it, and this has happened at least five times in a year. honestly, i think he's just lonely in his little booth.

a word of caution: no one yet here has mentioned being intoxicated while getting pulled over (or if they did i've been too drunk to remember) but be careful. in some places the DUI is the same on a bike as it is in a car. a lot of people here don't drive, so losing your license isn't so scary, but it's still a hassle. spending the night in jail's not too fun either.

cheers.

I run 20 reds every day here in columbia, sc. Never been ticketed, and they've seen me at least a few times. Pretty sure they just don't care.

One time I was stopped at a red waiting to turn left with my flashy LED headlight on, and a campus cop yelled something to me that I couldn't hear, I think that I wasn't supposed to be in the street or something. I ignored him, and he didn't say anything.

I got pulled over a couple weeks ago while I riding on the far west side of chicago, around garfield park. When cops see a pale white college kid riding in the middle of that neighborhood they suspect he is there to buy drugs I guess. After getting searched and patted down while explaining that the only drugs I had were cigarettes and malt liquor and that I was headed to downer's grove (~20 miles from there) they let me go.

Or maybe it's the fact that you're one of 4 white people in your neighborhood.

They can smell the aryan on you.

are you serious? :p I've been riding in this city for over 10 years and have NEVER gotten pulled over by a cop.

now driving....that's a different story.

never said i was in the city.

I made the mistake of riding on OSU's campus one night. I went onto the wrong side of the road to go up a wheelchair ramp and go between some buildings, then this cop stops me. He asked me where I was going and whatnot and then *****ed at me for riding on the wrong side of the street. All the while I was trackstanding in the wrong side of the street. It would have been better if there had been traffic to be blocked.

i dont think i could count the times.. my favorite though was for riding no-handed in seattle..and exactly one day after that i got pulled over for riding my skateboard on the street

Got pulled over a couple of nights ago for blowing a red. One cop was doing the lecture thing, I did the yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir thing while trying to look contrite. His partner kept interjecting with "If you're going to blow lights do it when we can't see it" and stuff like that which was putting the other guy off his patter.

Tonight a cyclist memorial got busted up by the fuzz. Well, they made us take our sign off the street and stop blocking traffic, but that doesn't really count, I suppose.

One time in London, England.

I was like 50 meters from my house, after a 1 hour ride at 2:30 am, totally drunk.
The guys did not allw me to proceed the 50mtrs to my house, took me and my bike to the police station,
and they took me to a bed. Drunk as I was I was screaming at them that I have to be at work next morning.
As a result of this a cop spent 5 minutes at 5:30am trying to wake me up.
I had to sign something that wrote "drunk on a bicycle". BTW I did not have any lights, also.
They gave me the bike, they asked if I do need a ride home (?), and I was let go.
My backpack, wallet, and everything else was fully searched, I noticed when I got home.

BUT, interesting, there were no charges, fines, etc.
This increased the consideration I had for the London Police.

funny side note...I usually hate cops, but between the junkie trying to break into my apt last night, and the hit n run driver today, i've got a different attitude right now.

last time I got pulled over it was the same BS, an off duty cop, but this guy just saw me blow through an intersection pretty ballsy (between a cab and the unmarked cop, then cut off the cop). just asked my name and what not because when he saw me smashed up dead in a car accident, he didn't want to have to try to find any ID, he just wanted to be ready to go, "yeah, I know dat kid."

Been pulled over twice in Manhattan for running reds - both times at intersections where there was no possibility of cross-traffic and there were no pedestrians.

1. I was coming down Broadway, crossing Astor around 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday, and it was the start of the worst morning ever: Five cops fanned out and waved me down. I was hung over and on my way to meet my girlfriend at the time to go with her to a doctor's appointment so as to split the cost of birth control pills. While the cop was writing the ticket, a friend of mine randomly wandered by and said he had an extra ticket to some big summer all-day concert that started at noon that day, and did I want to come? Of course I did, but I said, "Nah. I gotta get this ticket and go meet my girl." After getting the ticket I got hit by a car just below Canal (he turned right across me and his stupid car actually gave me a cut on my knee without fully knocking me over), then got a flat on the bridge, and when I finally got to my girlfriend's house, she told me she'd cheated on me the night before. I didn't pay for the birth control.

2. Working as a messenger, I crossed 41st street at 6th Ave. where it runs into Bryant Park. A bike cop pulled me over and I gave him a (polite) hard time, since there were no cars or people around just then. Finally, he asked me if I was working as a messenger and I said yes. He asked for my "messenger ID" and I said "whuh?" So instead of writing me a ticket for running a red light, he gave me some kind of code violation for "failure to produce messenger ID." He told me that if I got my company to make me an ID and brought it to court, they'd drop the thing, and that's exactly what happened. The judge was totally surprised that I actually had an ID and said, "Well, this is unusual! Case dismissed."

I was also nabbed twice in Cambridge, MA, for the same offense, but no amusing stories: Once I got a written warning, and the other time I got stopped with some other guy who also happened to be running the light on his bike at the time, and the cop wrote his ticket first, but let me go when he looked at my ID and saw that it was my birthday.