My gosh, that is a completely and totally sore spot with me with the State of Maryland.
I know when I used to come down to hang out with the DC Chapter, I was warned (rightfully, and thankfully) to watch out for cameras, which is fine because I generally don’t speed (out of state, in-state I understand the local customs and leeway’s given to drivers) and don’t run stop lights or signs if I can avoid it.
Anyway, a few years back (around 2009-2012 maybe?) I came down to Maryland, and on my way home, got stuck in traffic on the main highway north of Baltimore where they were doing all that construction. It took nearly four hours to go ten miles on a Sunday morning...I was nearly crazy with irritation.
Well, when I reached a spot where the traffic began to break free, I just accelerated to highway speed along with everyone else and took off, going no faster than everyone else.
I got a ticket in the mail about a month later with a picture of my car and its plate. I distinctly remember seeing a large plywood box on stilts on the side of the road RIGHT AT THAT POINT WHERE TRAFFIC BROKE FREE. It was gathering revenue for the State of Maryland.
I was damned spitting mad for several months, thinking of all the ways I could fight back, until my wife told me I was driving her crazy and to just pay the fine and be done with it.
Which I did.
It did not register on me at the time what that plywood box with a small square black hole adorned with the sign “END OF CONSTRUCTION ZONE” was, and I thought it was a strange way to put up a sign, but when I got that ticket I knew exactly what and where it was taken: Taking pictures of cars EXITING the construction zone going up to highway speed while still technically in the construction zone.
I am a rule follower. When I see signs to merge due to construction, I do it at the first sight of the sign, not when traffic cones force me to. As a rule, I go no faster than the ambient speed cars are traveling at.
But damn it, that was entrapment pure and simple. (See, you can tell I am STILL pissed about it after all these years!)
Wisconsin is the "Badger State".
West Virginia is the "Mountain State".
Wyoming is the "Cowboy State".
Maryland is the "FxxK YOU!!! State".
Yours definitely sounds like entrapment. It’s a fine line between safety & a money grab.