'Flintstone Car' Driver Off The Hook For Ticket
 

If you could get the right torque conversion you may be able to go highway speeds....LOL!

I saw a guy driving a car like this @ Burning Man. well, not exactly....It was tiny, and looked Russian, and appeared stock on the outside. I wondered why they let such a normal car into the festival. It only had room for two pedallers. He said he drove it from California. Burning Man is in Northern Nevada. It got up and went surprisingly well.

It doesn't have to be a motor vehicle to be a vehicle. I believe the judge was incorrect in his dismissal, because the conversion IS a vehicle for the same reason a bicycle is legally a vehicle in all 50 states.
The "unsafe" portion of the "unsafe vehicle" would have to be applied against the bicycle safety requirements, not motor vehicle requirements. If helmets are required of bicyclists in that jurisdiction, then the pedaling passengers had to have helmets on, or show that the roof of the car had been certified as meeting the applicable helmet standards. If the pedal vehicle were being operated on a road with a minimum speed, and that speed were above the 15 kph mentioned, or if pedal vehicles were otherwise specifically prohibited (limited access interstates for example), then the pedal vehicle is being operated in an unsafe manner. If forward facing reflectors are required and none were installed, despite the candles, the vehicle does not meet the safety requirements for that class of vehicle and would be an unsafe vehicle under the applicable (bicycle) requirements.
On the other hand, the judge may have realized that the erstwhile "artist" was merely looking for attention and using the courtroom as a performance art forum was not in the better interest of the time of the court, then the decision to dismiss may have been a wise move, if not one that would stand up to appelate review for legal reasons.

Having read all the laws governing bicycles in my area, that vehicle is a bicycle 100%, it's only a car if it's licensed as a car, has an engine that can propel over 30mph, and most of all, doesn't have pedals! as a bicycle is any pedal powered vehicle that has two or more wheels over 16", I'm sure the cop got laughed at after this whole deal.

bicycle = two wheels - this was not a bicycle

A unicycle is not a bicycle. "Speedy"s recumbent tadpole trike is not a bicycle. Training wheels make a bicycle not a bicycle.
But a Segway is?

The charge was not related to a bicycle, however many wheels it had not withstanding, but for operating an unsafe vehicle.
"The judge dropped the charge, not because he liked the concept but because the vehicle wasn't actually a car at all. Therefore the specific charge of operating an unsafe vehicle didn't legally apply."
It may not be a "bi"cycle, and it isn't a car anymore, but the cop's perception of the lack of some safety related to this vehicle, and there should have been no disputing this definition, was the charge.

The judge's dismissal precedent implies that travel trailer safety requirements are unenforceable in that jurisdiction since a two wheeled, non-motorized, travel trailer isn't "actually a car at all" either.

Actually, we have some strange, left over from WWII blackout regs, bicycle laws still on the books here, and the cop could have written a ticket for those... and 99% of all the other bikes on the road, they include stuff like having the bottom of the rear fender/mudguard painted white and and having the front forks painted white or having strips of reflective tape on them. Also could have got it on the more modern one of not having wheel reflectors..