When Can You Drive Over the Speed Limit

If you’re teaching a young driver how to drive and allowing someone with a Learner’s Permit to drive you around it’s probably never a good time for them to drive over the speed limit. In no way am I condoning you driving over the speed limit either, but there are specific times of the day, of the week and under certain circumstances that tickets are more likely to be issued. Knowing these things can help you avoid being ticketed when you’re driving because no one wants to have a ticket that needs to be paid because they drive a little too fast.

Factor One: Speed

Can you drive over the speed limit and avoid a ticket? The fact is that anytime you drive above the speed limit you are putting yourself at risk of being pulled over for speeding. Thankfully, there is a bit of a buffer that most police officers will allow. Very few tickets are issued for driving between one and five mph over the limit and only three percent are issued for as much as up to ten mph over the limit, but once you breach this level of speed you’re putting yourself on the radar.

The most common speed above the limit that receives a ticket is 12 mph over the limit and the second most common are for 16 mph over the limit. If you have a habit of traveling near the ten mph over the limit range you’re flirting with disaster because one-third of all tickets issued are for that 12 mph over the limit number. You’re certainly better off dialing down the speed and staying at speeds between one and five mph over the limit than trying to push your luck at double-digit speeds.

Factor Two: Time of Day/Week

The time of day when you speed is also a huge factor. If you live in an area where rush hour traffic is a real thing, you’re probably going to get away with speeding during the rush in the morning and afternoon without being ticketed unless you’re the only person traveling at warp speed on the roads. On the other hand, the time from 1-3pm seems to be the most popular time of day for a ticket to be issued. This is typically the time of day when the traffic is lighter and officers can pick you out on the road more easily.

The same thought process holds true for the time of the week when you’re going to see more tickets. Monday through Thursday are the days when you’re less likely to have a ticket issued while Friday through Sunday is the most common days for ticketing. These three days that are considered part of the weekend are typically lighter traffic days and this makes it easier for officers to see who is speeding and who isn’t, even on Friday when many of us head to work and then head home excited to begin the weekend.

Factor Three: Age and Sex

The stereotypes certainly hold true that younger drivers are more likely to get ticketed than older drivers and men are more likely to be ticketed than women. The number of tickets issued per age
declines sharply after the age of 19 with the group in the 16-25-year-old demographic being the most ticketed and those that are forty-years-old and above received a significantly lower number of tickets. The age factor holds true regardless of sex and officers have found that younger drivers are more likely to speed than older ones.

When it comes to the sex of the driver, men are much more likely to be ticketed than women when pulled over. Below the age of 55, men receive tickets one and a half times more often than women and above the age of 55 years old that number increases to twice as often. This may seem unfair, but these are the numbers. If you’re a young male behind the wheel, you need to avoid speeding, especially when driving on the weekends while driving during rush hour could allow an older driver to be able to push the limits just a little bit more.