Do Speeding Tickets Deter Drivers From Speeding?
The NMA has long held that drivers will travel at a speed that is reasonable to them regardless of the speed limit. With arbitrarily low speed limits in place across much of the country, it’s no surprise that the majority of drivers choose to travel above the speed limit.
The response of government has always been to hand out speeding tickets with heavy financial penalties to deter this behavior.
However, anecdotal evidence has shown that this has had little effect on driver behavior and has only padded the budgets of local and state government. Now more concrete evidence is available as well.
There was a study done recently that confirms the fact that speeding tickets are an ineffective way to deter speeding. This study was published in the March 2007 issue of Traffic Injury Prevention.
Here’s a quick summary of the study:
Title:
Do Speeding Tickets Reduce the Likelihood of Receiving Subsequent Speeding Tickets?Authors:
Saranath Lawpoolsri a; Jingyi Li a; Elisa R. Braver abAffiliations:
a Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
b National Study Center for Trauma and EMS, Baltimore, Maryland, USAStudy Objective:
Speeding tickets are the most commonly used tool to deter speeders, yet little is known about how speeding citations affect individual drivers’ behavior over time.This study examined the effects of being cited for speeding and types of legal consequences on drivers’ subsequent speeding citations, which are an indicator of speeding behavior.
Conclusion:
Drivers who receive speeding citations are at increased risk of receiving subsequent speeding citations, suggesting that speeding citations have limited effects on deterrence in the context of the current traffic enforcement system.
The full study goes into greater detail, including how different types of penalties can affect results. If you’re interested, you can read it here.
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Yes,
I stopped speeding because of speeding tickets!!!!!!!!
If you saw your kids brains spilled on the pavement after a speeding driver ran them over your tune would change. I cant believe how ignorant all of you are. We should just leave the cars and bodies out for you guys to see…why honestly do we cover it up with a yellow sheet….we should put it on the front page..stupid stupid people….speeding doesnt kill wtf
{If you saw your kids brains spilled on the pavement after a speeding driver ran them over your tune would change. I cant believe how ignorant all of you are….speeding doesnt kill wtf}
The facts do not support your fear-mongering. Aside from the improbability of such a scenario, even the virulently anti-speed NHTSA claims no more than 8.4% of the 34% of crashes caused by driver error or about 2.9% caused by speed too fast for conditions. “Speeding,” which is completely different did not even register. US DOT, NHTSA, DOT HS 811059, National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey (Report to Congress), July 2008.
On a personal note, I used to work the emergency room as an orderly when I was in college and I saw all kinds of horrible things. My goal – re-enforced from a long-standing study — became to prevent those things, not to just scare drivers into compliance with silly laws that have nothing to do with crash causation.
[...] scientifically shown.” Ironically, there are studies out there that show that “Drivers who receive speeding citations are at increased risk of receiving subsequent speeding citations, suggesting that speeding citations have [...]
Randy writes: {It may be true that drivers who receive speeding tickets are at increased risk of receiving more tickets but that is only because if they received them in the first place then they do not respect ANY laws.} [Emphasis added]
That indicates one of the unintended consequences of having a law predicated upon a fiction: it tends to degrade respect not only for that particular law but all laws. To be widely accepted, laws must be reasonable and the value of the law must be apparent to those to whom it is applied. Speed laws have failed the reasonable test on all of the ostensible reasons offered – currently safety, fuel consumption, and limiting urban sprawl – and have degraded respect for other laws, those who write them, those who enforce them and government in general. It should not surprise us that those of us on the left agree with those on the radical right that many laws deserve our contempt.
The way to fix this is not stronger enforcement but better laws.
The conclusion of this article is bull. “Conclusion:
Drivers who receive speeding citations are at increased risk of receiving subsequent speeding citations, suggesting that speeding citations have limited effects on deterrence in the context of the current traffic enforcement system.”
It may be true that drivers who receive speeding tickets are at increased risk of receiving more tickets but that is only because if they received them in the first place then they do not respect any laws. Tickets mean little to them unless points are added to their driving record and possible drivers license suspension is possible. For many drivers they only need one ticket to learn their lesson and for many more getting a possible ticket is a deterrent and they try to never get a ticket so if they do not get a ticket they are not at increased chance of getting a second.
These type of “suggesting” type of statements are put out by people that do these surveys who have an agenda and do not show the truth. It is put out by people that have the agenda that all police are corrupt and these tickets are only about money which is also false.
Speeding tickets do work. I saw that in Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago. They now have a crackdown and are not allowing drivers to drive 15 mph to 20 mph over the limit any more. It works. The traffic flow was great compared to what it used to be. There was only one driver that I saw out of hundreds that was driving more than 5 mph over the limit. The police saw him also. According to the records the past few months, deaths and fatal traffic accidents are down a lot. Part of that may be the crackdown on DUI also. If I remember right James Baxter lives in Wisconsin. I wonder what he thinks about the changes.
I received several tickets when I was younger(between 16 and 20 something) and I stopped speeding, cold turkey. That’s all the research I need. Getting popped with $120 fines ($75 + supervision costs) was enuogh to wake ME up!
Maybe the excess fines work for some people like you, but i have had numerous speeding tickets and have been pulled over an excess of 40 times! I have had Five speeding tickets in two years and also two other tickets. I have had thousands of dollers in fines, all of which i have payed myself, and i have had my license suspended twice. NONE of these things work. Speeding can be an addiction, a way to get out, a way to disobey because you don’t have control of other things (like anorexia or balemia), something you dont know your even doing because your not constantly watching the speedometer, or a combination of those things. What people really need is a councilor to help them diagnose why they are speeding and then find ways to solve the problem. screw tickets and suspensions they dont effing work!!!! and plus, lost of people that speed are the better drivers on the road. some people seriously should not be driving because they are not competent enough and they suck at it. i have never been in, or been close to getting in an accident, but there are people who total 4 cars in a short period of time, and they are still out driving on the freakin road! speeders arent the big problem, reckless, drunk, and crappy drivers are. UGH people are so stupid!
You just need to have your DL suspended.
To Andrea Basse
You said “Speeding kills period. Im a paramedic and ive lost my husband to a speeding vehicle. Everyone should drive as they would around a school bus….that thier own child was on. If your family member was killed the first question that comes to mind is How fast was the vehicle going? Speed limits are set to protect you and your family. Good news for all you assholes who cut cars in half,yes the slow moving ones with children in the back. You probably wont do jail time. You can blame it on a slow moving vehicle and say oops my bad . Is that a childs femur over there?.”
If this is what you believe to be true then so be it. You have every right to believe what every you want to believe. I respect what you are saying but I disagree. Speed alone does NOT kill however speeding too fast for conditions can contribute to an accident. On some freeways when conditions permit 90 mph can be done safely. Another day on the same freeway when conditions are bad 35 mph can be too fast. The safest speed all depends on the conditions around you. The safest speed should NOT be based upon the number on the sign. Lets say for example that the speed limit is 75 mph for a particular part of the freeway. During night, heavy traffic, etc 75 mph is too fast for conditions however in contrast to that when very little to no traffic is around, bright day light, visibility is good, etc then 90 mph can be done safely. The safe speed changes with the conditions. This is why regular speed limit signs do NOT always show the most safest speed for the present conditions but varaible speed limits would be a good alternative however the only problem would be the $cost$.
I wish Jim Walker was here on this article to explain this better.