Yeah, nothing original here... seen this about 20 years ago in several states. Montana's famous $5 "day ticket" is payable on-the-spot.

Like the aforementioned Montana tickets? I have relatives who live in Montana, they tell me the only reason anyone doesn't speed there is because they simply want to be law-abiding; there's no deterrence in the fine.

Ah yes, Montana. Where the death rate doubled when the "reasonable and prudent" speed limit was replaced by the federally mandated 75mph limit.


:failed:

You're mixing up law and penalty.

If the laws were more reflective of the reasonable actions of the majority of people, then there would be far fewer people breaking them. Many traffic laws are sensible - they keep people in their lanes and stop people from crashing into eachother. Speed on the other hand - you're much much much less likely to crash if you're doing 65kph in a 50kph zone where there's 6 lanes of traffic than if you run a red light.

You're also more likely to increase aggression in those around you if you're one of the minority who insists on sticking to the posted limit.

Yet it's the failure of the municipal and provincial engineering departments to set speed limits appropriately that result in these severe courtroom backlogs.

Grab a scanner and listen to some of the multi-member traffic operations. They don't always ticket the right driver.