28-702.01A Speeding Ticket: Fines, Record, and Insurance

A ticket written under ARS 28-702.01 is Arizona’s “waste of a finite resource” speeding violation: a designation available when you’re caught no more than 10 miles per hour over the posted limit on a qualifying road. The base civil penalty is capped at $15, no points hit your license, the court does not forward the judgment to the Arizona Department of Transportation, and your insurer cannot treat it as a moving violation.¹

When the Designation Applies

Three conditions have to line up. The posted speed limit has to be at least 30 mph outside an urbanized area, or at least 40 mph inside one. You were driving no more than 10 mph over that limit. And the offense has to actually be designated as a waste of a finite resource.¹

That third piece matters. The statute says the offense “may be designated” this way, which means the citing officer or the court has discretion. If you were ticketed at 37 in a 30 zone, you meet the speed criteria, but the classification still needs to appear on the citation or be applied by the court. Most minor stops inside the 10-mph window do receive the designation in practice. Check what’s written on your ticket.

What You’ll Actually Pay

The base civil penalty cannot exceed $15.¹ The total you owe will be higher because Arizona adds surcharges to every traffic penalty.

Under ARS 12-116.01, three surcharges apply to the base fine: 42 percent, 7 percent, and 6 percent.² ARS 12-116.02 adds another 13 percent surcharge for medical services.³ All surcharges calculate off the base fine rather than stacking on each other. On a $15 base, that’s roughly $10.20 in surcharges, for a realistic total near $25.20. A fraction of a standard Arizona speeding ticket.

What It Keeps Off Your Record

A standard speeding violation in Arizona adds 3 points to your driving record. Reach 8 or more points inside 12 months and you can face mandatory Traffic Survival School or a license suspension of up to 12 months.⁴ A waste of a finite resource violation avoids all of that.

The statute bars any state department or agency from using this violation when deciding whether to suspend or revoke your license, and it prohibits the court from forwarding the judgment to the Arizona Department of Transportation.¹ No report is made under ARS 28-1559, the statute that normally requires courts to send an abstract of every traffic conviction to ADOT within ten days.⁵ ADOT never learns about the violation, so it never appears on your official driving history.

Insurance Protections

Insurance companies cannot treat this violation as a moving traffic violation when setting your rates. They also cannot cancel your policy or refuse to renew it because of it.¹

A typical speeding ticket can push premiums up 10 to 30 percent, and that increase often sticks for three to five years. Because the waste of a finite resource violation never reaches your ADOT record and is specifically excluded from insurer consideration, that rate hike simply doesn’t happen. Drivers already in a higher-risk rating tier stand to save the most.

The 11 MPH Cliff

The 10-mph threshold is a hard line. If the court finds you were driving more than 10 miles per hour over the posted limit, the violation is classified as a standard civil traffic violation with the full range of consequences. The penalty jumps to the amount provided under ARS 28-1598, which allows substantially higher fines.¹ You also pick up 3 points, the conviction is reported to ADOT, and your insurer can factor it in.⁴

Practically, the difference between 10 over and 11 over is the difference between a $25 non-event and a several-hundred-dollar ticket that follows you for years. If the alleged speed on your citation puts you at 11 over or more, that’s the number to focus on when deciding whether to contest.

Urbanized Areas vs. the Rest of Arizona

The minimum speed-limit threshold depends on where the road sits. Outside urbanized areas, the posted limit must be at least 30 mph for the designation to apply. Inside urbanized areas, the minimum is 40 mph.¹

So a ticket in a 25-mph school zone or a 15-mph parking lot cannot become a waste of a finite resource violation no matter how small the overage. Arizona borrows the U.S. Census Bureau’s definition of “urbanized area,” which generally covers densely developed areas of 50,000 or more.⁶ Phoenix, Tucson, and Mesa qualify. Most of Arizona’s geographic area does not, so the lower 30-mph threshold applies across the majority of the state’s roads.

Out-of-State Drivers

If you’re visiting Arizona and get one of these citations, the in-state protections still apply. The bigger question is whether your home state finds out.

Most states share traffic convictions through interstate compacts like the Driver License Compact. Because the statute prevents the court from forwarding records to ADOT under ARS 28-1559, there is no conviction abstract for Arizona to share with your home state.¹ The reporting chain is cut at the source. Pay the penalty and it should stay an Arizona-only matter.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 28-702.01 – Waste of a Finite Resource; Civil Penalties; Urbanized Areas; Definition
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 12-116.01 – Surcharges; Remittance Reports; Fund Deposits
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 12-116.02 – Additional Surcharges; Fund Deposits
4
Arizona Department of Transportation. Points Assessment
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 28-1559 – Traffic Case Records; Abstract of Record; Reports
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 28-702.04 – Maximum Speed Limit on Interstate Highways Outside Urbanized Areas and Within Certain Counties