New York driving lesson · How to Keep Your License
Suspension, revocation & new-driver rules
A 3-minute lesson from the New York course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
DMV can take away your driving privilege for one serious violation or for several less serious ones. New drivers are held to a tighter standard: during your junior years or your first six months of probation, just a couple of tickets can cost you your license.
Suspension
Your license or privilege to drive is taken away for a period of time, then returned. You may have to pay a suspension termination fee.
Your license is cancelled. After the revocation period you must re-apply, may pay a re-application fee, and can be denied for a poor record. Periods may exceed the minimums.
The courtesy that lets out-of-state drivers drive in NY, or NY's permission for an unlicensed person to get a NY license. It can be suspended or revoked like a license.
When the 60-day suspension ends, a new six-month probation begins. One of the listed violations or any two traffic violations during this second probation means revocation for at least six months, then another six-month probation if restored.
You passed your road test at 19. Three months later you're convicted of speeding. Because you're on probation, your license is suspended for 60 days, and a fresh six-month probation starts when it's returned. Another speeding conviction during that second probation would mean at least a six-month revocation.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
What does a license suspension mean?
Your license is permanently cancelled
You must retake the written test only
Your registration, but not your license, is affected
Driving privilege taken away temporarily
Answer: Driving privilege taken away temporarily
A suspension takes away your license or privilege for a period of time before it is returned.
A newly licensed driver's 60-day probation suspension has ended and a new probation began. They then commit two traffic violations. What happens?
Only a written warning is issued
Another 60-day suspension
Revocation for at least 6 months
A $50 fine only
Answer: Revocation for at least 6 months
Two traffic violations (or one listed violation) during the second probationary period bring a revocation of at least six months; in the first probation they bring a 60-day suspension.