[J_9]

What time of day or night did this occur? Being from Michigan myself, I know that there are some very rough areas in K'zoo. My son is a police officer (not in K'zoo), and says that attitude will most definitely get you a ticket. Kindness and respect will get you out of very many situations.

[AK lawyer]

Don't know about New York but in Maryland where I worked as a Highway Engineer, there are numerous intersections where only access to a business is controlled by a traffic signal (no intersecting streets, roadways, collector roads etc), and many others where a portion of the need for the signal is a large service station.
In many instances, the signal is designed and paid for by the business that the signal serves and is required before access to a public highway is authorized.
In other instances, if a signal exists in the vicinity before the business develops, the only access that will be permitted is by bringing in a connection from the business to the existing signal and once again the business paying for the signal modifications. Entrances are routinely denied if the curb apron (driveway to a business) would be within a certain distance from an existing intersection (signalized or not). The intention being- minimizing the number of intersections/accident potential along a state or county roadway.

yoyo- are you willing to give us a precise location of the intersection that we can look at thru google maps or other available resources? I believe this would be very helpful. Just an address for the service station should do it.

I think this hits the nail on the head.

It has to do with the layout rather than whether the "driveway" is publicly or provately owned. If there is a law in Michigan requiring one to stop at a green light when exiting a "private drive" that would be strange, because a private drive wouldn't usually have a light.

So yes, please give us coordinates or a pic from Google Earth or something like that.

[Fr_Chuck]

But I will agree, as a past officer from Atlanta GA, being polite or rude makes a difference,
The one person who got the most tickets from me, at one time, started by saying "don't you know who I am) it went down hill from there, he got 5 tickets, the most I ever gave any one person. They were all valid, some absure laws, ** I will say the judge was not really happy about them, but he had to let them stand, since they were valid

[smearcase]

AK, Part of my statement is that there are many private drives that have their access to a state or county road at a signal, and in many cases it is just a signal to facilitate traffic in and out of one particular business. I doubt that is unique to MD. One example, a new Lowe's was built in western MD on the top of a hill and their "driveway" is several hundred feet long, down to US 40. They has to obtain an access permit from the State Highway Administration and a as a condition of receiving a permit they have to fund and have built, a signal (creating a "T" intersection), left turn lane, acceleration lane, deceleration lane, etc. I am assuming that Lowe's funded and built it based on procedures in effect when I worked there.
There were instances during my career where developments were proposed but never built because access was denied, usually because highway engineering standards couldn't be satisfied or were too costly for the developer.
Another location near Baltimore, a hotel immediately adjacent to a state highway, no driveway, the entrance/exit is at a 4 way signal, no driveway, no other roadway of any kind, just one business involved.
I don't know the design of the intersection the OP mentioned until she tells us where it is.

[JudyKayTee]

That's why I asked if this is a cross intersection involving the driveway or a t with a driveway on one side.

Well, it's not like I investigate accidents or anything so what would I know - ?

And, yes, I checked the law. I see nothing about stopping at a green light before "you" proceed. Likewise, that's why I asked for the exact language on the ticket. Green or not green a person cannot pull out of a driveway/street/whatever when it is not safe.

And I said from the top that OP exercised his civil right not to answer - and that's undoubtedly a factor in the ticket. Then it all got clouded by the ticket in the driveway additional language.

[AK lawyer]

...Ask for a copy of the law you broke which - by the way - was what?

I have reviewed this thread, and I don't see that OP has told us what, exactly, the ticket said. It should cite a code section. I just looked at the Michigan statutes, and they are a real jumble. I couldn't find their "rules of the road" in them at all.

I have a hard time believing that they have a law against failing to yield at a green light; either if it's a whether private drive or a public road connects at the light. Shouldn't make any difference. I'm guessing the officer is claiming that the light was not green.

One other comment. OP says that she suspects "racial profiling". That train left the station a long time ago. While Kalamazoo (or anywhere else) may still have traces of racial prejudice here and there, it's not Mississippi in 1930. Let's discuss the facts and not OP's imagined victimization, OK? What is more likely is that OP copped an attitude (as a result of her victim mentality) and was verbally abusive to the officer. Under such circumstances (not nicely saying "I'm sorry, officer, but I would rather not answer that question."), it is human nature to issue a ticket when otherwise it would have been borderline. He issued the ticket because of her attitude, not because of the color of her skin.

[JudyKayTee]

Agreed - another case where requests for info go unanswered and other info is provided instead.

[ScottGem]

One example, a new Lowe's was built in western MD on the top of a hill and their "driveway" is several hundred feet long, down to US 40.

This is a different situation. This works the same way in NY. But the driveway in this case is considered a private road. I specifically referred to a curb cut, where the curb is inclined down to the roadway not where the driveway or access is at the same level. In NY this would not be considered controlled by a traffic light but subject to the same rules as exiting a business or private inclined driveway.

But the bottom line here is the OP has a chance to fight this if she can show that she exited the gas station with reasonable safety.