It is like a game of monopoly. You just play by the rules and usually you do ok. It is not about right or wrong, moral or immoral. It is about generic laws that have statistical results, and individuals sometimes get chewed up in the gears. But it is rarely something REALLY painful.
Heck, in some parts of California the fine for not coming to a complete stop before a free right turn is over $500. And some of those fines are assessed by traffic light cameras. I’ve seen some where there is NO traffic and the car comes extremely close to a full stop, but they got the ticket. A human cop would consider the circumstances, but the machine does not. And I saw several cases where the camera was actually proven wrong.
You got by with less than $150 and if you were to fight it with the evidence at hand, you could probably win in court.
It’s a game. I just pay the stupid fine and am glad I landed on Baltic place with no buildings rather than Park place with a hotel. If a cop followed me around for a month and just wrote down infractions, I’d owe tens of thousands by the end of the month, so I consider the one ticket or so a year a good thing. ;)
I’ve been infracted for seatbelts several times now. Both times pulling out onto the road and then putting on the seatbelt when I come to the first intersection.
I’ve been driving now 12 years, have an accident free history.
Seat belts should be my choice to make. I understand the safety benefits of it, but the state shouldn’t be able to fine me for not wearing one.