moving violation in CA-sign not clearly marked

What is the name of your state?
CA-I was issued a ticket by CHP for turning left onto a street when making such turn is prohibited from 4-6pm--the turn was made at 5:25pm. First of all, when i approached the intersection I was confronted at eye level with a bright orange sign that indicated, "detour" and with an arrow pointing left. Yes, it was my intention to turn left anyway however, the street was under heavy construction (although, there was no one working on the street at this time) and the sign indicating prohibited turns at said times was placed quite a distance up from the detour sign next to a non-working signal light covered in black cloth (the street light not the sign). I also want to mention that when i approached the intersection, i noticed 2 CHP cars parked to the left of the intersection one of which immediately followed me into the parking lot of my destination. As I was waiting for the officer to issue a ticket, I saw the other CHP car follow someone else into the parking lot and issue a ticket as well. When I asked the officer why if they were sitting there issuing what appeared to be a high volume of tickets, why then was the sign not more cleary marked. Of course, I received no response to that question but was told that there had been complaints of people turning at that intersection when they were not supposed to because of the high volume of traffic at those times. Please note that I did not notice the high volume of traffic to which he was refering to. Needless, to say, I am "fighting" this violation as I feel that because the sign was not clearly marked, it was a clear sign of negligence as it put mine and others lives at risk. Had the sign been cleary marked there would be no reason to have 2 CHP officers there and ready to issue tickets. I am still trying to word the part about the CHP officers "waiting" to issue tickets. At any rate, when I asked for a court date, I was told that I could do so by posting bail which equals to the amount of the ticket. Am I really required to pay this bail and if so, do I get this money refunded to me should I happen to "win" my case? Sorry to make this so long, but any advice about any or all of this is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[JETX]

Yes... and yes.

No, I've never posted the bail on any traffic ticket that I've plead not guilty to (several of them, I seem to get ticketed a lot). Nothing ever came of it. That's in PA though.

[JETX]

Originally Posted by Sambo83

No, I've never posted the bail on any traffic ticket that I've plead not guilty to (several of them, I seem to get ticketed a lot). Nothing ever came of it. That's in PA though.

*** And what the hell do your ramblings have to do with anything in this thread???

he asked if he really had to pay the bail. You answered yes. I answered no, and explained why.

[JETX]

And your 'no' is simply incorrect. Most (if not all) traffic courts that have preliminary hearings (where the violator pleads guilty or not and a hearing is set) will ask for the violator to post a bail. The fact that your local jurisdiction handles it differently means nothing.

Here is a link to a court (Kern County) in California showing that bail on tickets is NOT unheard of (as your post implies):
[url]http://www.co.kern.ca.us/courts/traffictickets.asp#ts_request[/url]

And your 'answer' was poor in the fact that you didn't clarify what question you were even trying to answer... and wasn't even about the same state!!

[lwpat]

"I seem to get ticketed a lot"

I didn't realize that PA had passed a law against driving while ignorant.