If people break the speed limit, they get a ticket. Park in the wrong spot? Ticket. Not wearing a seatbelt? Ticket. U-turn in a no u-turn spot? Ticket.

Getting a ticket is the government’s way of trying to get drivers to handle their vehicles in a safer manner. Getting tickets doesn’t only affect people for just the fine and mark on their record, their insurance is also affected. The more tickets they get, the higher their insurance rate goes.  However, the rate of their insurance grows depending on the ticket and the kind of drivers they are, says Tonya Voris of the Veal Insurance Agency.

“Insurance rates are higher for anyone under the age of 25. A teen’s grades affect their insurance and whether they’ve taken a driver education course,” Voris said.

Cards have mixed emotions on whether getting a ticket will actually help enforce the law. Junior Precious Kioni has gotten a $169 ticket for speeding in a school zone.

“I guess for certain people [tickets] can be beneficial because then they will think twice,” Kioni said.

Kioni knows that the ticket she received will not change the way that she drives. Even while speeding, she made sure to keep safe distances from all cars to turn into her neighborhood. Kioni says she had no consequences from her parents except to pay the ticket herself.

Math teacher Art Miner also received a speeding ticket although the incident occurred around 25 years ago. Since this one time, Miner hasn’t gotten another ticket. He says he believes that tickets are important and help drivers fix their mistakes that they may be making.

“I think it’s beneficial. If you break the law, then you get caught. You have to pay the consequences, so hopefully you won’t break the law,” Miner said.

Senior Julianna Sullivan has never gotten a ticket but has gotten a warning for parking in the teacher parking section at SHS. She thinks that the warning alone will make her think twice about parking there again.

In 2007, the website Traffic Injury Prevention published the results of a study on the effectiveness of tickets for drivers in Maryland. The results showed that people who got speeding tickets are more likely to receive more speeding tickets in the future, putting into question how much of a deterrent traffic tickets actually are.