If you're going to plan that road trip through Texas, beware of suburban counties near large cities, for they are the speeding ticket capitals of the state.

Of the 10 counties that got the most of the 2.2 million tickets handed out during the three-year period, Montgomery County, northwest of Houston, tops the list with more than 36,600.

Parker County near Fort Worth was a close second, followed by other suburban havens -- Hunt, northeast of Dallas, fourth; Collin, home to the affluent Dallas suburb of Plano, fifth; and Bell, between Austin and Waco, ninth.

The 10 counties with the fewest tickets were San Saba in Central Texas and McMullen in South Texas, each between major interstates; Borden, Cochran, Stonewall, Kent, Foard and Lipscomb in or near the Panhandle, far from interstates; and Terrell and Loving in far West Texas.

Montgomery County earns its speedy reputation thanks to Interstate 45 on the west side and U.S. Highway 59 on the east, said Scott Markowitz, a Houston attorney specializing in traffic offenses in Houston and surrounding counties. In addition, speed limits of 55 mph in construction zones for U.S. 59 expansion projects have been strictly enforced.

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Roy Crooks, who runs a defensive driving course in Fort Worth, said Tarrant County speeders keep him busy, though he gets a steady flow of students from No. 2 Parker County.

"That part of I-20 in Parker County is one of the growing areas between Fort Worth and Weatherford," Crooks said. "It's a nice, great big six-lane highway, and people just keep the speed up a bit on a lot of hills. Troopers patrol that area pretty heavily."

The same goes for Pecos and Sutton counties, the only two remote areas to make it into the top 20. Capt. Ron Joy Jr., whose area includes Pecos and the state's largest county, Brewster, said his staff has fewer roadways to patrol out in the Big Empty.

"People probably get bored and they're trying to get through as fast as they can," Joy said.

Not that I condone such things, but if you want to know where the speed traps are in our great state, there's an online resource for you. All I can add to this is to avoid the city of Selma, just north of San Antonio, like the plague.