Edited from an older thing from 2020…
Automated law enforcement is not purposeful. Our laws are intended to be tools to maintain peace order and good government. But rigorous arbitrary enforcement is used as a source of revenue, and as such is predation. Predation on the public by its own public services.
And generally speed enforcement is safety-theatre rather than a meaningful measure. Most roads have design limits very wide of the speed that traffic moves on them. And most cars are designed to be safely operated with margins wide of the posted limits.
It makes no sense to design a road wide and straight with perhaps several lanes, suited for speeds of 60–80 and then sign that dangerous, often stroad, 50 or 40 or 30. The road that was built is inherently dangerous, but instead of fixing it, a municipality opts to just blame and punish the people driving on it.
But giving out speeding tickets to people exceeding an arbitrarily low posted limit is cheap. And legislators can point at it and say, “Look! we did a safety thing.” And automating the ticketing makes speed enforcement cheaper still.
I am not sure whether to call this incompetence or corruption. And it really does not matter which it is.
PS
In France, when governments try this kind of thing on, local people show up and fill the equipment with cement.
