[m_herrlich]

I've always assumed speeding tickets are more about income than safety, since speed is a very rough measure of safe driving when you ignore the vehicle and driver skill.

This approach costs more (cops babysit speeders) and the state doesn't get paid. Doesn't seem practical from a policy standpoint.

[goodmachine]

Your assumption might be wrong, though.

It costs a lot of money to scrape people off the road and put them back together. And more if the person cannot be reassembled. Whether the state pays or insurers do (or both), it all makes for cost that gets spread across society to some degree. I don't know the exact amount a life is worth, but

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-value-of-life/

Secondly, a rough metric like speed is exactly how one should interpret safety. Given a wide distribution of skills (mutually interacting driver competencies), and a wide distribution of vehicle capabilities and parameters (stopping distances, tyre pressures, safety features) and an even wider distribution of actual road-types & weather conditions it makes 'obey the damn speed limit: everybody, always' the simplest possible thing for drivers to understand, and for the cops to enforce.

This approach seems pretty cool. I assume the Estonians will publish the results either way.

[black_puppydog]

so then you should advocate for a more progressive income tax, and a complete abolition of speeding tickets. not sure that most people would agree that has no impact on safety though...