Honestly, when it comes to road-related violations (speeding, yield issues, fulling stopping at stop signs or RTOR, etc), I feel similarly. The current state of affairs where it's a $300 ticket that you're probably never going to see because 99% of the time you get away with it is dumb— it makes people contemptuous of the law and also feel super resentful and hard-done-by if they do finally get caught. And it's a positive feedback loop where that culture makes the road an unsafe place for people walking and cycling, so less people choose those modes, putting more cars on the road and making it even less safe.

Consistent enforcement with much lower, escalating fines would do a lot more to actually change behaviour. And the only way to get there at scale is via a lot of automation.

I wonder whats going on at the enforcement level. It seems like there is a dumbing down of that system. It would be interesting to see some research on this.

Oh I think it's a lot of exactly what's being discussed elsewhere in this thread— the cost of consistent enforcement is just way too high, so there isn't much of it. And that suits most people just fine since they're contemptuous about road safety anyway; they want to get where they're going unmolested and have the cops focused on "real" crimes.

Road safety in the end is a commons, just like littering. No one person's action is going to make the difference, but coordinated effort is only possible when there's enough public sentiment to get a central mandate together.

Yea that stuff is happening here where I live (1hr away) more often as well, it seemed like it started happening more often during COVID. People are running red lights more often and going way over the speed limit.