What would i plea in court if i wanted to fight a traffic traffic ticket to a lower offense?

Find an attorney who specializes in traffic tickets and see if they can plea it down.

Deals like that are made with the prosecutor before you see the judge, usually.

I suspect if you can't work that out you will lose even if you are innocent

Whenever my friends show up to court to contest tickets, they don't say anything. The police officers never show up to the hearing which causes the ticket to be dropped in the area I live.

Not guilty. pleaing guilty in court basically closes the case and offers you no chance to reduce the punishment. If you do so, you will want to give them a reason to reduce the punishment such as a good driving record or something of the nature that shows your a good citizen that made a mistake

"Not guilty" there genius.