Charged For Right Turn On Green Light
Charged with "Proceed Contrary to sign at intersection" last year for my right turn on a green light at Bay and Bloor downtown. I pleaded not guilty and my trial is on Jan 30. This is my first traffic ticket and I'm 22, Caucasian white male driving an SUV, so I'm not sure what to say/do for my trial. I've been driving since I was 16.
I rarely if ever drive in downtown Toronto, so you can imagine how shocked I was to be pulled over for turning right on a green light. Not left, right. I was driving downtown to attend class at U of T once a week and I was a full-time student at the time.
What happened was I saw the sign for "no right turn on red light". I waited, stopped, for the light to turn green and then I proceeded.
Apparently there are signs for "no right turn on green", but I didn't even know signs like these exist since I rarely drive downtown. Where I'm from (Markham), you can always turn right on green. A defense of "I didn't see the sign" shouldn't work, but what actually happened was that I saw the "no right turn on red light" and figured, being an experienced driver for my age, that I should wait until the light was green to proceed.
I wasn't trying to be deceitful or disrespect the rules of the road, I'm still in shock that this happened.
Thank-you in advance for the help. If anyone has any recommendations whether specific or general don't hesitate to reply.