anyone else get pulled over?
 

so i'm riding home last night through the burbs...this minivan is behind me, I try to give him space to pass, he just honks, another block or two of him riding my ass and honking, as soon as there's space I try to let him pass. OF COURSE, it turns out to be a very pissed off cop. my mind immedately flashed to the fact that in the last 5 mins, I had cut him off, blownstop signs, red lights, ridden on the double-yellow, etc etc etc. at least I didn't get a citation.

I've been pulled over once.
Was waiting in a line of cars to turn left, got bored and moved to the front of the line and went on the arrow.
Cop pulled me over for not waiting my turn.

I got pulled over while on a skateboard for skitching a car hanging onto the car's open driver window (and so basicly positioning myself right on top of the double yellow)... dont know if that counts tho.

yup,for blowin stop signs.

The cop has no authority to pull you over if he is off duty.
You could have gotten his badge number and made a harassment complaint.
From your post it sounds like he was not following you with an assured clear distance.
Enjoy

the very same night i had my bihawk cut/coloured, a van full of Brooklyn's Finest nailed me running a red in brooklyn at 02.00... no cars or other cyclists were anywhere around. they asked me if i was an art student and if i was spraying graffiti. then they followed me halfway home making sure i stopped at every single red. trackstanding in the man's headlights at a clear intersection waiting for a light in the middle of the night is a strange feeling.

juvi-kyle and i got pulled over in la for running a light or something stupid like that. he did an awesome job of sweet talking the officer...
"yes sir.
no sir.
yes sir.
i know sir.
i'm sorry sir.
no, i won't do it again sir."

it was awesome.

stop sign and taking a lane while entering a tunnel with a blind corner.

I got pulled over 3 nights ago and I'm still not clear on why

Funny thing is the cop was even more of a b*tch to me after I told her we had the same employer.

oh man, it is so weird to have cops following you. I had a cop yell at me for blowing through red lights and for two miles afterward this cop was always behind me. I mean it sometimes went past me but would do a circle around a city block to position itself behind me again.
so weird.

Kinda unrelated but yesterday twelve apartment units burned down and cops barricaded all the streets leading to the apartments. I was going around a blind curve, about 120degrees to the left in a ten foot length. All of a sudden a cop car was there and a cop was in it. I had to skid to stop and redirect myself to the left of the car. The thought of slamming into a cop car at full speed is kinda scary.

the only time i was pulled over was because i took some bottles to the trash and someone thought it was a burglar. i rode off on my bike and the cops pulled me over a few blocks later, didn't even ask for id though.

besides that, the cops around here (college town of 120,000) don't give a ****. i've ran reds, stop signs, wrong way on a one way all right in front of cops.

oh wait I forgot. I was riding home one day and a cop car pulled in front of me blocking me. He asked "Hey what's going on?" in a very creepy, "holy crap I'm about to get ***** or mugged" way except this came from a cop. A big fat cop in a cowboy hat. I said "fine." and tried riding off but he pulled up to block me again.
Turns out he thought I was stealing the bike frame on my back. It really pissed me off that two cop cars were wasted blocking me and interrogating me when I knew some crime had to be going on elsewhere. However looking back I like that cops are protecting cyclist's from theft.
still though...

A cop on a Suzuki dual-purpose motorcycle chased me down after blowing a stop sign. I didn't have any ID on me. I gave him my real name and address. I got a ticket in the mail a few days later for $75 bucks. All that brainwashing about "never tell a lie" and "thou shalt not lie" really paid off...

I got a freakin' JAYWALKING ticket in LA.

happy ending: i invoiced my client for it and they paid it.

Never been pulled over/yelled at... yet. I did hit a cop who was crossing the street (read: jaywalking) without looking, but he looked embarassed and apologized.

ive been pulled over for riding the yellow which ended up in an argument over wether or not a fixed gear qualifies as a brake and wether or not spoke cards qualify as reflectors as well as wether me yelling qualifies as a bell it was a jersey cop so i won and rode on my way 5 min later.

running stop signs and speed through a school zone.

I got barricaded one night for riding without lights. I was about 50 feet from my front door (on the way out) and they were heading the opposite direction, just pulled right in front of me to block my passage. Ran my ID to make sure I had no warrants and wished me a good night. I said, "I guess you'd rather I went home rather than riding without lights." Cop shrugged and said, "Well, we're not gonna follow you."

i got pulled over in berkeley for riding at night in the middle of the lane w/o any lights. they were super cool and just wanted to lightly scold me for safety issues. They were all stoked on my bike, i got to explain velodrome racing and fixed gearing to them and everything. then they told me i wasnt supposed to ride it home w/o lights, but blatently hinted at the fact that they would drive away and really didn't care. I loves me some Berkeley PD. :)

luckily my extremely drunk friend had just turned off to go home, or else they might not have been so nice to him.

Oh man, this was great. I'm in my home town in FL to see my folks, and pressed my old schwinn mtb from like 1992 back into service for a run over to my grandfather's house 3 blocks away. End up rolling back just after dark, and of course my suburban town is so devoid of cyclists that anyone out after dark without spandex is clearly an illegal immigrant who can't afford a car out looking for some house to break into, so this cop lights up the lights. I was thinking he was just passing me, but he stays behind and so I roll over into the grass. Gives me the full-on about how I am required to have a light. Sorry sir, I was only going 3 blocks and didn't even think I'd be coming back this late. He heads back to the car to run my ID. Backup (yes, backup, for a calm individual on a bike) shows up, and asks me if I live around here. Yes, your friend over there has my ID, but it lists my address as a block away from where we're standing, and could you please turn your lights off, you're scaring Mrs. Robertson, I can see her looking out the window at us. He gives me a funny look, but doesn't turn off the flashers. This whole mess takes like 20 minutes a and they finally let me go, and so I walk the bike down the street. They yell after me that I can ride it if I want. WTF?

I'm glad they're patrolling the crap out of my affluent white neighborhood, but come on, is just riding a bike really a cause for suspicion? It's not like they actually pulled me over for not having a light, they'd have written me a ticket for it if they cared about that. Total BS, go find some real crime, boys.

wow, I love how the last 3 of us pretty much had the same story...

My brother and another friend of mine both got jaywalking tickets walking from the burrito place to the echo on sunset. They got the tickets on different days. Both times it was a $75 ticket.

Thats pretty awesome.

i got a speeding ticket once for doing 47 in a 25. small-town cop with nothing better to do. i was 16 and all "HELL yeah! i got a speeding ticket on my BIKE, i am a bada$$!"

I don't know about Pennsylvania, but this is not true in Massachusetts and probably other states, FYI. Shoot, in places with citizen's arrest laws, anyone can pull you over (or try to) if they've witnessed you committing a felony. (Not that running a stop sign is a felony; I'm just sayin' . . .)