A follow up thought - the article also mentions that revenues generated from citations are another possible reason for the speed limits being what they are and

A follow up thought - the article also mentions that revenues generated from citations are another possible reason for the speed limits being what they are and speed traps being a known money grab nationwide. This is definitely true, and pretty much everyone who drives knows this intuitively. The authorities always like to claim that it is always about safety. Well, I might believe that if they didn't derive a sizable chunk of revenue from this enforcement. I think society as a whole might actually believe them if and only if it became a legal requirement that any and all revenues coming directly from fines are required to be donated to charity. Then I would be far, far more likely to actually believe that I'm getting a citation because the officer truly thinks I did something unsafe and worthy of being fined for. Since courts typically also assign a court fee if you decide to (or are required to) show up in court, there would need to be some kind of protection to prevent them from jacking up the court costs as well.