Not about wasting one minute of time. Driving is situational. That's why cops can give you a speeding ticket when you driving under the speed limit, but in their subjective perspective, over the speed that is "safe". It's also why they'll ticket you for slamming on your brakes if your wheels break the limit line with cars behind on an intersection to avoid going through a potential red light (go figure!). And the car behind should be "traveling at a safe enough distance" is IMHO (at least where I live...) a joke... Drive an LA freeway for a day and tell me how well that works out for you.

Slamming on brakes on a clear intersection to avoid an arbitrary automated ticket is horrible driving advice. Yeah, you get hit and it's not your fault... try getting rear-ended at 35 mph... I have, and it ain't fun.

That's why we have cops, and not just a million sensors. It's also why cops don't routinely ticket drivers going 5-10 miles over the speed limit on the freeway. If black and white made sense, they should be pulling people over as fast as they can fish 'em off the road... lord knows the state needs the money!

I don't know what your experience with red light cameras is going to be. The experience here is it hasn't changed behavior one bit. Mostly 'cause the streets they're on are so congested that their mostly catching people just flat out caught in the flow of traffic (where, IMO you'd get more and worst accidents with excessively aggressive braking than late yellows) and there's not much to change there. They guy dialing his cell phone and blowing thru the light into a minivan is going to end up doing that whether there's a camer or not... And most people aren't even aware the cameras are there until it's too late... and awareness is a prerequisite to changing behavior.

But these ain't about changing behavior... they're ATMs for the city, plain and simple. If they really wanted to change something in a meaningful way, they'd put speeding cameras on residential through streets, where people blow through at 35-40 on a 25 to short cut congestion for cut & dry no other reason than to save time.

Also interesting point... the city doesn't pay for the cameras. The company that makes, installs and maintains them (also coincidentally in culver city...) covers that cost for a % take on the ticket revenue. And I'm sure their selection of placement is driven completely by an overriding interest in public safety....