More than one in seven drivers in North Dakota has a speeding ticket on their record. That 15.5% figure, from insurance agency Insurify's analysis of all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., puts the state well clear of the national average of 7.2% - and ahead of D.C., the runner-up at 11.8%. Famously car-heavy Florida and Texas, contrary to stereotype, both sit among the 20 states with the fewest ticketed drivers.
Why North Dakota? A few reasons stack up. It's flat, open country with long sightlines and few hills, curves or trees, which Highway Patrol Sergeant Adam Malafa suggests makes drivers feel comfortable going fast. The state has also historically kept fines low - at one point just $15 for doing 70 in a 55 zone, an offence that could cost up to $300 elsewhere - earning it a reputation as one of the cheapest places in America to get caught speeding. Local attitudes are relaxed too; a state senator once joked about keeping speeding "affordable".
The numbers have actually worsened recently. In Insurify's 2024 study, North Dakota also ranked first, but only 8.7% of drivers were ticketed. Since then, the urban interstate speed limit rose from 75 to 80 mph. Interestingly, citations dropped 32% on those stretches once limits went up - apparently drivers were already travelling that fast - yet overall ticketed rates climbed anyway.
For context, the rest of the top five for ticketed drivers is Washington, D.C., Iowa, Virginia and South Carolina. At the other end sit New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Massachusetts and Maine, all comfortably below the national average, with New Jersey and Connecticut each showing fewer than one in 22 drivers with a ticket.
For anyone plotting a U.S. road trip, this is genuinely useful. If long, fast rural highways stress you out, routes through the slower-scoring states offer a calmer pace with better scenery anyway: Connecticut's Litchfield Hills wind past state parks and forests, while New Jersey's Delaware River Scenic Byway traces the waterfront through trails and small towns. North Dakota, by contrast, is all about vast distances - fine if you enjoy an empty horizon, but keep an eye on the speedometer, because even with modest fines, more than 15% of local drivers have been pulled over for exactly the same thing.
