# What's your traffic ticket rate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 26, 2008, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535 "2008-11-26T07:11:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/1 "2008-11-26T07:11:20Z")
I’ve gotten 7 traffic tickets that I can remember in 34 years, resulting in a rate of about 0.206 tickets per year. Every single one of them has been a speeding ticket. I tend to get them in bunches as I’ve had two episodes of two traffic tickets within 6 months. I would probably have a lot more speeding tickets if I ever drove an even moderately fast car. I’ve only owned air cooled Volkswagens and a four banger 4Runner. One of them I was busted for driving 60mph in a 55mph zone, which was completely bogus. It was in my 1961 VW bus, which is so difficult to keep on the road during a crosswind, the cop thought I was driving drunk, which I was not, or maybe he just wanted to harass some derelict in an old hippy bus. OK, which doper has the best and worst driving record? ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/2 "2008-11-26T07:47:04Z")
I’m 33 and I’ve had two speeding tickets. I’ve been warned a lot more that that, but let go with just a warning. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/3 "2008-11-26T07:53:55Z")
I have the worst record. Let’s just say that I have a lifetime average of over one ticket a year, and I haven’t had one in four years. It’s not something I’m exactly proud of. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/4 "2008-11-26T07:59:08Z")
Let’s see… I’ve had two speeding tickets in the past four months, and my lifetime total is 8 speeding, 2 reckless driving, one running a red light, and a DUI (I know, I know, but I didn’t hit anything or anybody, and the experience convinced me to quit drinking entirely). I’m 30 and I’ve had my license since I was 16. Also, between 16 and 18, I totaled three cars. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/5 "2008-11-26T07:59:57Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > I’m 33 and I’ve had two speeding tickets. I’ve been warned a lot more that that, but let go with just a warning. Why doesn’t that surprise me?🙂 I’ve been left with a warning exactly once. ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/6 "2008-11-26T08:59:18Z")
I’ve been driving for 23 years. Zero moving violations. I once got a ticket for an expired emissions sticker back in 1987. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/7 "2008-11-26T09:05:03Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > I’m 33 and I’ve had two speeding tickets. I’ve been warned a lot more that that, but let go with just a warning. Ditto, except it’s only been 2 warnings for me. The last one was a cop in New Mexico who I passed on the interstate while doing 85mph. He gave me a warning and told me he’d only pulled me over because it would’ve been embarassing to have people see me pass him like that without doing _something_. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/8 "2008-11-26T09:05:56Z")
Four parking tickets in the ten years since I got my license. But then again, I didn’t drive for most of those years, so a fairer assumption would be four in three years. Nothing for anything but parking violations (you just try to find a parking space close to my home at 5:30 in the afternoon!) ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/9 "2008-11-26T09:23:54Z")
I’ve been driving 27 years and had 1 speed camera fine. Si ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/10 "2008-11-26T09:32:07Z")
One ticket for speeding…going downhill in a car that had a non-working spedometer. I always tried to go with the “flow of traffic” but I guess that day I failed. I was nineteen. I am now thirty and that’s the only ticket I’ve received. So far. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/11 "2008-11-26T12:23:35Z")
Three speeding tickets in 50 years. Got them all in the same year. Had a big V-8, 350, 4 barrel smooth riding tank. You would be speeding and not even know it. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/12 "2008-11-26T13:53:23Z")
2 tickets the first year I had a license, another 7 years later in 1979. I have been ticketless since. I have been pulled over a couple of times but was not cited. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/13 "2008-11-26T14:21:12Z")
That I can recall, I’ve gotten five speeding tickets in my life. None of them translated to points on my license. The last two were in the same week and that was 7 years ago. So 5 for 16 years is about .2 per year. I’ve managed to talk my way out of at least that many though, so I’ve gotten stopped around .4 to .5 times per year. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/14 "2008-11-26T14:24:06Z")
One speeding ticket a few years ago; 2 or 3 (I forget) tickets for expired tags, back when MrWhatsit was in charge of remembering to renew our tags. He’s not in charge of that anymore. 🙂 16 years of driving. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/15 "2008-11-26T14:24:39Z")
3 or so within the first 3 years that I started driving, then went 15 years without any. I would have this “sixth sense” where just some minor subtle thing would set off my alarm bells and I’d slow down, and then see the cop. A notorious speedtrap municipality nearby which I frequent got me twice in 5 years 1999 & 2004. Got a radar detector and have been clean since; psychic cop detector still works as I was on an onramp last year juicing it up to the speedlimit, pedal to the floor, when something about the headlights behind me made me hit the speed limit at the merge (not 1 MPH higher). Yes it was a local cop, who followed me for 300 yards and then passed me without lighting me up. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/16 "2008-11-26T14:36:48Z")
37, never been ticketed or fined. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/17 "2008-11-26T14:39:53Z")
In the twenty years since I first got my license I’ve received 1 speeding ticket, in 1992. I was stopped for speeding one other time a few years later, but was let off with a warning. Of course, since I don’t currently drive anything with a motor, if I manage to get a speeding ticket I’m laminating it and hanging it from my handlebars as a trophy. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/18 "2008-11-26T14:49:20Z")
Let’s see…two speeding tickets, one for 40 in a 25 zone when I was 18 and one for 65 in a 45 about 6 months ago. It used to be a ritual that I wouldn’t renew my plates until I got a ticket, but I’ve knocked that off in the last two years because it’s worth it not to have to pay the ticket and the sticker cost, and I’ve gotten a few warnings because I’m honest (Do you have a good reason for not stopping at that stop sign? No sir I don’t.) So I’d say it works out to one ticket every two years or so. I’m 30 and have been driving since I was 17 because I got kicked out of drivers ed the first time I took it. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/19 "2008-11-26T14:49:34Z")
Driving for 21 years, one speeding ticket (that I still say was baloney) and one splatting of a taupe Taurus with two old people in it (sorry! Sorry!) while I was driving my mother’s car while she was out of town (sorry! Sorry!) Never otherwise pulled over. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535/20 "2008-11-26T14:58:49Z")
One parking ticket. One speeding ticket. Driving for 13 yrs. (In the USA, does a speeding ticket impact your insurance premiums?) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-traffic-ticket-rate/474535.md?page=2)