My history with traffic incidents has been ~15 instances of me following ACLU advice and getting sent on my way with "warnings". One instance where I talked with a judge and got it cleaned off my record due to an otherwise clean record. One instance where I never even saw the judge and just made a "deal" with a clerk sitting outside the courtroom whose sole purpose was to negotiate with the public and avoid tying up the court.

For the one where I talked with the judge, everyone told me I was crazy to go talk with this judge because they had a stereotype for being a small town court which made it's livelihood on traffic citations on the state highway and the court would make sure I paid them what they were due.

Instead what I found was a humble judge who probably had a full-time job elsewhere in the town just trying to keep an organized and orderly town and not really interested in throwing the book at people or adding to their troubles. Everyone in the court session that day got their citations dismissed as long as they paid the $29 court cost. He seemed to take the approach that if they showed up on their assigned court date and were respectful to the police and the court, they were a good citizen.