Dear Editor:

A few days ago I got a traffic ticket while dropping off my granddaughter at Griffiths Middle School. The motorcycle officer told me he was giving me a ticket for impeding traffic.

I had noticed the motorcycle officer pulling people over every morning this past week. I assumed he was catching people on their cell phone. There's not much more you can do in the bumper-to- bumper traffic on Tweedy Lane at that time of the morning.

The morning I got a ticket, I saw the officer on the other side of the street giving someone a ticket. There was a large gathering of students on the lawn in front of the school. I asked my granddaughter, "I wonder what's going on?" While stopped in front of the school, my granddaughter hopped out of the car and walked into the school.

As soon as my granddaughter got out of the car, the officer made a U-turn in the street, pulled behind me with his red lights still on from the last ticket he gave.

I pulled over and the officer came to my passenger window and told me he was giving me a ticket for impeding traffic. He said, “As you know, traffic is a real problem and you need to pull over, not stop in the street.”

I stopped in the street because it was bumper-to-bumper traffic and cars were stopped in front of me. I was not impeding traffic. It just so happened that while I was stopped because traffic had stopped in front of me, my granddaughter got out of the car. I believe the officer pulled behind me and gave me a ticket because he saw my granddaughter getting out of my car.

I am aware of the traffic problem on that street. My granddaughter is in the 8th grade. I have been dropping her off at that school for three years. Traffic on that street is horrendous and always has been.

If I had been doing something wrong - speeding, running a red light, texting - then give me a ticket. I would deserve it. But I did nothing wrong. I did not hurt anyone or put anyone in danger. I saw the officer across the street when my granddaughter was getting out of the car. If I thought I was breaking the law, I certainly would not have done it right in front of a police officer.

Since receiving my ticket, I have been closely observing the traffic on Tweedy Lane. A lot of people now seem paranoid trying to find a parking space to pull into which is near impossible at that time of the morning. I was trying to pull out of a parking space I luckily found and there was a car stopped in the street with her blinker on waiting for my parking space. So, here is this driver stopping traffic waiting for my parking space. Isn't this impeding traffic? What's the difference in this lady stopping traffic for a few minutes waiting for my parking space or stopping to let her child out while traffic is stopped anyway?

To me, any way you look at it, traffic is going to be stop–and-go, bumper-to-bumper traffic. No amount of tickets is going to change that.

What I now notice is drivers either pulling into driveways or making U-turns on that busy street to get a parking space on the other side of the street, or people trying to back up to parallel park into a parking space. That’s a joke. These people are driving back and forth and back and forth trying to get into a space. This is stopping and delaying traffic 10 times worse than if the parent just stopped for five seconds to let their child out.

Believe me – I am a law-abiding citizen and I say go after and penalize real violators. Leave the parents and grandparents alone who are just trying to get their kids to school on time.

And by the way, the reason for the group of students gathered on the school lawn? They were counting how many tickets that police officer was giving out that morning.

Darlene Roberson
Downey