And making it a lesser civil fine frequently makes it nearly impossible to fight. Fighting your average traffic citation written by police officer - in most jurisdictions - at least carries the fiction that you can fight it in court. You may not get that day in court with a civil violation.

Last part - these traffic cameras are incredibly regressive taxation. The wealthy hedge fund manager from Greenwich gets hit with the same fine as the single mother of two barely making ends meet that just missed a speed sign. Whether you like law enforcement or not, they are still human beings that likely wouldn't hesitate to write up the Greenwich guy or give a break to the single mom - you don't have that with a camera that sends a ticket to everyone.

I'd hear stories from Asian countries where wealthy conglomerate owners that liked cars wouldn't give two shits about the cameras and would speed everywhere because, well, when you can pay the fine, who cares?