[leetcrew]

> Why shouldn't it be for revenue?

because it creates inappropriate incentives for the state. it incentivizes authorities to knowingly create unreasonable laws for the purpose of increasing revenue. a fine can be a good deterrent against breaking the law, and I'm certainly not saying they should just burn the money, but it's something you should be wary of as a citizen.

the rest of your post indicates a very trusting attitude towards government, so I doubt we are going to see eye-to-eye here in general. I really think you should reconsider the yellow light timings though; it is quite an egregious abuse.

a yellow light needs to have some minimum duration to be useful. you can't have a 1 second yellow on a 50mph road; there's no way anyone can stop that fast. yellow light timings are usually set so that drivers who are too close to the light to safely stop can pass through before it turns red and the cross traffic gets the green. shortening the yellow for one direction usually advances the green timing for the cross traffic. it's not just a "gotcha" fine; it actually increases the chance of collisions in the intersection.