North Dakota Is The Best Place In America To Speed

According to the folks at Popular Mechanics the best place in America to drive faster than the speed limit is North Dakota.

Maybe the shale oil boom will change this state’s outlook on speeding, but for now, North Dakota is about as lenient as it gets. It has the lowest speed trap activity coupled with the lowest fines speeding on state roads limits below 55 mph: just $10 for being 10 mph over the limit.

In any zone marked 65 mph or above (the maximum limit is 75) it’s a simple $5 for each mph over the limit, with no New Jersey-style doubling of penalties.

According to the magazine, the worst place in America to get caught speeding is New Jersey where speed traps abound and driving 10 miles-per-hour over the limit on highways where the speed limit is at least 65 can have you charged with “racing” to which double penalties apply.

No joke.

Lawmakers actually sought to increase fines for speeding during the 2013 legislative session. HB1048 even passed the House on a wide 61-30 vote, but after the Senate amended the bill the House killed it on a narrow 44-39 vote against.

The final version of the law would have levied a fine of $4 for each mile-per-hour over the post limit on highways where the posted speed is between 55 and 70 miles-per-hour, and $5 for each mile-per-hour over the speed limit on highways where the posted limit is 70 or higher.

Rep. Bob Skarphol of Tioga also introduced HB1189 which would have targeted out-of-state drivers with higher fines and would have filtered the revenues from the higher fines to law enforcement agencies (thus incentivizing law enforcement to target out-of-state drivers).

That bill didn’t make it out of the House, failing on a 38-51 vote.

I haven’t heard anything about this issue being taken up again in the new Legislative session next year. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was especially given the increase in traffic on North Dakota roads which has lead to an increase in traffic accidents and fatalities.