My decision about going to court or not would be based on whether or not I thought it was worth my time. I'm not a particularly high earner, but I'm not sure I would choose to potentially sit in court for several hours over just paying the $150 fine. But, if I felt like it was worth it, I'd probably go ahead and fight it to save myself the cash.
ETA: I should add that I would be concerned the judge wouldn't like my explanation in a case like this and wouldn't drop the fine. Then I would have wasted my time and had to pay the ticket. So, really, I'd just go ahead and pay it.