[OptionOfT]

This is literally what happened in Belgium when politicians did budget. A piece of the expected slice was traffic fines.

So that means that any kind of system that would improve traffic other than repressive measures would cost them twice, once to fix the situation and again when they can issue less fines.

[dmos62]

If I drive carelessly and get a meaningful fine, I'll think twice next time, irrespective of who gets the money. I only care that I am fined. Unless the police starts to administer fines when they shouldn't, all is good, right? What happened in Belgium?

[kergonath]

I don’t know about Belgium specifically, but one of the usual issues is that it incentivises aggressive policing of minor issues that make money (like parking violations), which takes resources out of other problems (like mugging).

[lazide]

In some situations (cough random towns with sections of highway running through them in Texas), it incentivizes an approach to traffic enforcement which is barely distinguishable from getting mugged.

[FridgeSeal]

Putting the highway, into highway robbery!

[tenzing]

That's fine for you personally, and it may sound all good from a logical, theoretical, or academic perspective, however I personally know of people who have lost their license due to multiple fines and "demerit points" (NZ) resulting in that consequence.

The fines, and loss of license hurt them personally, professionally, and financially, but didn't change their behavior outside of the very short term.

In NZ we have people that are in and out of prison due to burglaries, robberies, etc... but the penalties don't change their longer term behavior.

There's a deeper problem, and penalties are important, but not the entire fix.

[dmos62]

The occasional fine I get (and the prospect of getting another) does affect my driving habits and attentiveness, and it's the same for people close to me. Can't talk for others, though I'd expect this to be the norm.

[xythobuz]

Then these people _obviously_ are not fit to drive a multi-ton killing machine at all and should have their license permanently revoked, when they had multiple chances for introspection.

[genewitch]

I think whoever brought up the "fines as revenue" may have thought of Fenton, LA or the like: https://www.propublica.org/article/fenton-louisiana-brought-...

[mulmen]

And yet people drive with suspended licenses every day.

[johnisgood]

Yeah, as if "criminals" cared about the laws. :D (See: gun control).

[Timwi]

Driving carefully is not a boolean. It's possible to design roads/environments (accidentally or not) in such a way that the “you drove carelessly” metric that triggers the fine statistically applies more often.

[victorbjorklund]

If they design the road to make it harder to follow the rules it is bad.

[dotancohen]

Bad for the driver, good for the government. That's exactly the point.

[victorbjorklund]

Not really. If you hit a person with your car and that person becomes disabled. It will be way more expensive for the govt in the long run compared to a few fines.