So BEFORE they added the band aid fix, if you wanted to make a U-turn at an intersection and pulled into a right turn lane, were presented with a solid red light and a green right turn arrow, it was illegal to make a U-turn
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
I was able to vent a lot of stress by posing a bunch of "why are the signals like this?" type questions and fluster the fuck out of the instructor (he was a good sport though) to everyone's amusement but, not like I expected anything more, got no more than "this is just how it is setup" type answers. On the other hand, I got a good talkin' to regarding my citations that is making me reconsider disputing the tickets. Apparently, even when the prosecutor dismisses the criminal case against you, you are totally fucked when it comes to points on your record. The only way to get the points removed is if the prosecutor takes your case, you win, and only then are you able to have yet another court case to determine if the points stand or will be removed. (likely a year after the incident) At that point, the points are likely already gone from your record. Now the prosecutor is only likely to take your case if there is evidence against you (in which case you're fucked before going to court) so basically disputing the ticket is only likely to save you the cost of the ticket (but at the risk of a criminal trial/record) and you're likely going to still have the points on your record. The dude explaining it all to me was quite experienced with paying tickets and basically said "Think of if like bribing the cops in Mexico, Thailand, etc....only in Japan the whole system is setup around bribing it to not further pursue you with criminal charges." He literally said "Welcome to North Korea, you just suck it up and play by their fucked system or suffer. Everyone thinks it's fucked but it's not worth anyone's time to change it. Though a criminal record and jail time for an "illegal turn" or "burned out brake lamp" is likely to get laughed at by most other countries, obviously the powers that be here have decided it is a serious enough offense so with all things considered, most just sign, pay and seethe about it to their friends."