More than likely, at some point, most of us will or have already received a speeding ticket. Of course, some states are worse than others when it comes to speed traps and fines. In some states, a speeding ticket can result in hundreds of dollars as well as an insurance premium hike. Trust me, I know.

Years ago, before I moved to Montana I was hanging out with a couple of players for the Kansas City Royals. One of them mentioned driving through Montana with a 20 dollar bill on his dash. When asked why, he said, "Well, in Montana when they pull you over, all you have to do is give them a 20 dollar bill and they let you go." I'm guessing that's not entirely true.

So where does Montana rank when it comes to speeding tickets? Are we more on the tougher side, or are we a bit more lenient here?

First off, Montana is one of a handful of states that offers 80 miles per hour on rural interstates. With that being said, how tough is Montana when it comes to cracking down on speeding? According to an article from Popular Mechanics, Montana comes in second best as far as the best states to get a speeding ticket (North Dakota came in first). The article also states that Montana has the least amount of speed traps when compared to the other 49 states.

Woman in car signing speeding ticket for policeman
moodboard
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Of course, you can't write an article about speeding and Montana and not talk about "the law".

From 1954 to 1974 and then again from 1995 to 1999 in Montana, there was the “reasonable and prudent" law. What does that mean? Well, what it meant back then was that "technically" Montana didn't have a speed limit. It was up to the officer's discretion back then, however, someone decided to challenge that in court after getting a ticket for doing 85, and well...the rest is history.

Speed Limit 70
Harris Shiffman
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If you do find yourself on the side of the highway with one of our fine law enforcement officers walking up to your vehicle, here is something you might be interested in, the Top Excuses To Get Out of a Ticket from carinsurance.com:

  • Didn't know I was speeding (26 percent success rate)
  • Medical Emergency (25 percent success rate)
  • Everyone else was going the same speed (22 percent success rate)
  • I'm late for work (21 percent success rate)
  • I have to go to the bathroom (20 percent)

While I don't condone lying, I suppose it's worth a shot to give one of these a try the next time you get pulled over for speeding. Oh, and remember, buckle up and be safe out there.

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LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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