No lawyer. Either say you are not guilty or ask for deferred/defensive driving. If something crazy happens, a trial (it wont), mark trial by jury and ask to have the court date reset. If you go in, plead not guilty and check trial by jury I'd give you a 75% chance that it'd get dismissed. But it'll be a hassle to deal with. Despite what you might here, you can do defensive driving more than once for a ticket and deferred adjudication uses a timeline. You can get a ticket during deferred adjudication, just don't get convicted guilty on it within that time frame.
Paying the ticket is not cheaper and it will go on your record. By taking defensive driving you will also save on your insurance. As another poster mentioned. You don't have to wait until your court date. Some jurisdictions even have websites for this where you can go request defensive driving and pay. Dont have to go anywhere.
If you have the time why not go to court and see if the cop actually shows and if all else fails you can still tell the judge you want deffered adjudication and you have to take defensive driving and pay fee less then the fine. That is if you want it to remain off record.
