Where these numbers come from

The short version

This tool estimates what a traffic ticket really costs — the fine, the licence points, and the insurance premium increase that usually outlasts both. The fine and points come from state documents wherever a state publishes them. The insurance figure is a model, and we say so everywhere it appears.

The hard part is that most states do not publish the number drivers actually want. They publish a base fine, or a statutory maximum, and leave the real total to each county court. Rather than hide that, we label it: a state whose figure we can quote from its own schedule reads differently here from one where we have had to assemble it.

Where each number comes from

Each state record carries a separate citation for each kind of figure, because these are genuinely different documents — a fine schedule, a point table, a speed-limit statute, a traffic-school rule and a criminal-speeding section are never published together.

Verified, estimated, and not yet checked

We grade each state's fine figure by one test: is the number we show the number the state published?

• Verified — quoted directly from a statewide schedule. California's Judicial Council, for instance, publishes a single total bail figure per speed band, so no assembly is needed.
• Estimated — the state has been checked and its statute cited, but it fixes only a base fine or a ceiling and each court sets the rest. Florida's civil penalty and Pennsylvania's per-mph formula both work this way.
• Not yet verified — the state has not been through a review pass. It is labelled as such on its own page rather than quietly presented as equivalent.

Every state has now been through a review pass. The table at the bottom of this page shows where each one landed, and it is generated from the data rather than written by hand.

How the fine is calculated

Each state record holds three anchor figures — the fine at 10, 20 and 30 mph over the limit. For any other speed we interpolate linearly between the two nearest anchors. Above 30 over we extrapolate from the rate between the last two anchors and apply a further 1.3× escalation, because penalties in nearly every state step up sharply at the top of the scale rather than continuing in a straight line.

That produces one figure, which we then present as a band from 0.88× to 1.2× it. The same offence in the same state genuinely costs different amounts in different courtrooms, so we publish a band rather than a single figure that would imply a precision nobody can offer.

Construction and school zone violations are multiplied by 1.5×. Many states double the fine in a construction or school zone outright. We use a deliberately conservative middle, because the rules on when and where a zone penalty applies differ from state to state.

For violations that are not speeding — red light, phone, DUI, reckless, seatbelt — there is no speed to interpolate, so the estimate comes from a band per violation type, chosen by the state's overall penalty severity.

Rounding happens once, when a figure is returned — never part-way through. Intermediate rounding inside a multi-step calculation is how estimates drift by a dollar or two for no discoverable reason.

How the three-year insurance estimate works

This is the number most drivers underestimate, and it is usually larger than the fine. It is also the one figure here that is a model rather than a citation. Each state sits in one of four premium-impact tiers:

A state's tier reflects how much a violation moves premiums in that state's insurance market. That is a separate question from how harshly the state punishes the offence, and the two deliberately do not track each other — a state can have severe statutory penalties and a mild premium market, or the reverse.

Serious violations then scale the tier figures: a DUI multiplies them by 3, 2.5 and 2 across the three years; reckless driving by 1.8, 1.5 and 1.3; a construction or school zone violation by 1.3, 1.2 and 1.1. The three-year total is scaled separately — 2.5× for a DUI, 1.5× for reckless driving, 1.2× for a zone violation — rather than re-added from the three years. The total cost shown by the calculator is the fine plus the three-year insurance figure.

What this cannot tell you

• County and city variation. In most states the court, not the legislature, sets the final amount. Two neighbouring counties routinely differ by more than the range shown here.
• Surcharges and add-on fees. Some are billed separately and weeks later — Georgia's Super Speeder fee arrives by mail from the state, not from the court.
• Your own record and policy. A second violation inside a look-back window costs far more than the first, and insurers weigh history differently.
• Anything about your specific case. This is not legal advice, and no figure here is a substitute for the court named on your citation.

Review status by state

Generated from the dataset on every build — 51 of 51 states carry cited sources as of September 2026, of which 1 has a fine figure quoted directly from a statewide schedule. Every state has been checked.

Found an error?

Fine schedules change every year and state agency links rot constantly. If a figure for your state is wrong, tell us and point at where the right one is published — a statute section, a court fine schedule or a DMV page. Corrections that arrive with a source get applied.