Yeah, with every passing year this stuff burns me up more and more. I am, by my own choosing, on the email list for NMA and have come to firmly believe much of what they have to say on various motor vehicle law enforcement tactics. Two of the biggies, of course, are speed traps and traffic light camera tickets. I have come to firmly believe they're truly a racket, brazen money making machines utilized by cash-strapped local and state governments. Easy money on a grand scale.
And what makes it even more irksome is that it's carried out in the name of safety.
Keeping us safe from ourselves! If that's the rationale, you'd think there would be more enforcement when inclement weather exists. Surely speeding's much more dangerous in the rain, right? But I've rarely--virtually never--seen tickets written when precipitation is a factor. I'd LOVE to be able to read the minds of the troopers, deputies, etc, who've pulled me over for speeding during the course of the past 35 years and determine how many of them actually thought my driving on the day in question was unsafe. Obviously it's impossible, but if I could somehow get an honest answer from them, I suspect it would be exceedingly few.
Don't get me wrong...I'm in favor of law enforcement and the important work law enforcement personnel carry out. They're just following orders. I simply think there are better ways to utilize their talents than having them running radar or pointing laser units at me and my fellow commuters/travelers.