Confession: I have a lead foot. I tend to want to drive a little faster than the speed limit almost everywhere I go, and as a result, I've been pulled over for speeding a handful of times. You'd think I'd learn...but no. lol
Anyway, in my experience, it's always the best idea to BE NICE to the officer. Don't be rude. Don't yell. Don't make excuses. Just be nice. Bonus points if you are funny. I've gotten out of a couple of tickets not because I was necessarily TRYING to get out of them, but because I just did my best to be polite and charming, and things worked out.
Turns out, I'm onto something here because a recent survey found that simply being polite is the most likely way to get the officer to show some mercy. Check this out:
A newspaper in Minnesota recently analyzed 225,000 speeding tickets, and came up with these five tips on how to avoid one . . .
1. If you're going less than 10 miles an hour over the limit, you're probably fine. 97% of tickets were for driving faster than that. But once you cross that threshold, be careful. The most common ticket was for 12 miles an hour over the limit.
2. Be more careful in the summer. Cops give out more tickets, partly because more people speed. But also because they get more federal grant money to enforce it.
3. You're more likely to get a ticket when it's NOT rush hour, because it's easier to catch you. The peak times during the week are 6:30 to 7:30 A.M. . . . 10:00 to 11:00 A.M. . . . and 1:00 to 3:00 P.M. On weekends, it's between 4:00 and 6:00 P.M.
4. Slow down if you're a teenager, or a guy. Across the board, men get about 50% more tickets than women. And the peak age for tickets is 19 years old.
Young people also drive faster when they speed. The average 16-year-old who got caught was driving 17.8 miles an hour over the limit. For 25-year-olds, it was 16.9 miles per hour . . . and for 55-year-olds, it was 15.2.
5. The best way to get out of a ticket is to be polite. You're more likely to get a warning if you're nice to the cop. But not always. If you're caught going 25 or 30 miles an hour over the limit, it won't matter how nice you are.
[CBS]