Failure to Keep Right in New York: Fines, Points, Defenses

A failure to keep right in New York is a three-point moving violation under Vehicle and Traffic Law 1120, with a first-offense fine of up to $150, a mandatory state surcharge on top, and the risk of higher insurance premiums and DMV assessments if it pushes your point total past certain thresholds.¹² The charge covers two very different situations, and which one you were cited for changes how you defend against it.

What Conduct the Law Actually Covers

VTL 1120 has three parts. Subsection (a) is the general rule: drive on the right half of the roadway. It carves out clear exceptions for passing another vehicle, going around a cyclist, pedestrian, animal, or obstruction, driving on a road with three marked lanes, or traveling on a one-way street.¹

Subsection (b) is the one most highway drivers get tagged with. If you’re moving slower than the normal flow of traffic, you have to use the right lane or stay as close to the right edge as possible. The only built-in exceptions are actively passing someone or preparing for a left turn.¹ The officer doesn’t have to prove you were under the speed limit. They only have to show traffic was flowing around you because you wouldn’t move over.

Subsection (c) applies to roads with four or more lanes and two-way traffic: no driving left of the center line unless signs, markings, or an obstruction allow it.¹

What It Costs

The statute setting the fine is VTL 1800. A first conviction caps out at $150. A second within 18 months goes up to $300, and a third or more in that window up to $450.² Those are ceilings; the judge can go lower.

New York adds a mandatory state surcharge to every traffic infraction conviction, and courts can layer additional fees on top of that. The number you pay at the window is routinely well above the printed fine.

Points, the DMV Assessment, and Your Insurance

A VTL 1120 conviction is worth three points on your driving record. The DMV can suspend your license if you accumulate 11 points within 24 months.³ Combined with one speeding ticket at 21 mph over, three points puts you within a single minor conviction of suspension.

Six or more points within 18 months triggers the Driver Responsibility Assessment, a separate fee paid to the DMV over three years. The base is $300, at $100 per year, and every point beyond six adds $75 to the total, or $25 per year.⁴ At eight points in 18 months, that’s $450 over three years.

Then there’s insurance. A three-point moving violation on your record can raise your premiums for years, and the size of the increase depends on your carrier. Over a typical policy term, the insurance cost often outstrips the fine and the DRA combined.

Defenses That Actually Work

The strongest defenses are written into the statute. Every exception in VTL 1120(a) describes a situation where driving left of center is legal: passing, going around a cyclist, pedestrian, animal, or obstruction, or traveling on a one-way road.¹ If your conduct fits one, the violation doesn’t apply.

For subsection (b) tickets on the highway, the fight is usually over whether you were actually slower than surrounding traffic. If everyone around you was moving at roughly the same speed and no one needed to pass, the duty to move right wasn’t triggered. Preparing for a left turn or an exit that requires a left-lane approach can also explain why you were where you were.

Other arguments that come up regularly:

Road conditions in the right lane, like construction, debris, potholes, or standing water, can justify moving left even without a formal obstruction sign.
Sudden hazards, such as a vehicle pulling onto the shoulder or a pedestrian close to the roadway, can support an emergency-avoidance explanation.
Faded, missing, or shifting lane markings, especially in construction zones, can make it genuinely unclear where the right side of the road is.
The officer’s vantage point matters. If they couldn’t clearly see surrounding traffic, the claim that you were impeding it becomes harder to prove.

Evidence helps. Dashcam footage, GPS data showing your speed relative to traffic, and photos of the location strengthen a (b) defense in particular, because the whole case turns on how traffic was moving around you.

Responding to the Ticket

Where you were stopped decides where you answer. Tickets in New York City go through the Traffic Violations Bureau, and you can plead guilty or not guilty online, by mail, or in person. A not-guilty plea at the TVB doesn’t require you to appear; you can submit a written statement and let a judge weigh it against the officer’s account.⁵ Outside the city, the local town or village court where the stop happened handles the case.

Answer by the deadline printed on the ticket. If you plead not guilty, the court sets a hearing. Before the hearing, request a supporting deposition, which is the officer’s written account of what they observed. Under Criminal Procedure Law 100.25, you’re entitled to it as of right, and the court must order the officer to provide it within 30 days of your request or at least five days before trial, whichever comes first.⁶ If the officer never files one, that failure can support a motion to dismiss.

If You Ignore It

Doing nothing is worse than pleading guilty. Miss the deadline and the DMV can suspend your license. The court eventually enters a default conviction, meaning you’re found guilty without a hearing, and you owe the full fine plus surcharges. Unpaid balances can go to collections.⁵ In courts outside the TVB, a judge can also issue a bench warrant for failure to appear.

Cutting Points With a Defensive Driving Course

New York’s Point and Insurance Reduction Program lets you take a DMV-approved defensive driving course to remove four points from the total used to calculate the six-point DRA threshold and the 11-point suspension threshold. It also cuts your base auto insurance premium by 10% each year for three years.⁷ The conviction still appears on your record, but the point cut can stop the cascade.

You can take the course once every 18 months for the point benefit. If the VTL 1120 ticket would push you to six points, completing PIRP before the conviction posts can keep you under the DRA line and save at least $300.

Commercial Drivers

If you hold a CDL, the stakes climb. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration treats “making improper or erratic traffic lane changes” as a serious traffic violation. Two serious violations within three years mean a 60-day CDL disqualification. Three or more in that window means 120 days.⁸ Not every VTL 1120 ticket will be classified that way for federal purposes, because drifting left of center on a two-lane road is not the same conduct as an unsafe lane change on a highway. The overlap is close enough that any commercial driver with a prior serious conviction in the last three years should treat the second ticket as one to fight.

When to Bring in an Attorney

A standalone first-offense ticket with no other issues is something plenty of drivers handle on their own. The calculus shifts when the ticket is paired with a more serious charge like reckless driving under VTL 1212, which is a misdemeanor,⁹ or when the violation figures into an accident. In those cases the lane charge becomes evidence for the bigger one.

The other trigger is proximity to a point threshold. If a conviction would put you at six points and trigger the DRA, or at 11 and put your license at risk, the real cost of losing is much larger than the ticket. Traffic attorneys in New York regularly negotiate reductions to non-moving violations that carry no points, and the savings on the DRA and insurance side can more than cover the fee.

1
New York State Senate. New York Code VAT 1120 – Drive on Right Side of Roadway; Exceptions
2
New York State Senate. New York Vehicle and Traffic Law 1800 – Penalties for Traffic Infractions
3
New York State DMV. The New York State Driver Point System
4
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Driver Responsibility Assessment
5
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Traffic Violations Bureau
6
New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 100.25 – Simplified Information
7
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Point and Insurance Reduction Program (PIRP)
8
eCFR. 49 CFR 383.51 – Disqualification of Drivers
9
New York State Senate. New York Vehicle and Traffic Law 1212 – Reckless Driving