In my town of roughly 300k there are only two main east/west corridors. One was four lanes and one is six. They cut down the four lanes to a meandering brick two lane road with bike path and lots of expensive plants and medians. The speed limit is 25. If you go 32 you get a ticket. (I think it’s $250.) I’ve actually seen them stop people at 30 (because they were right behind me and keeping an even distance.) But supposedly you can’t write a ticket until it’s seven miles over the limit. They have a bunch of 18 year old cops on this route and I suspect they hired them only to write tickets and nothing else.
This has wildly increased traffic on the 6 lane road. At an open meeting the commission tried to reduce that road from 6 lanes to two bike/walking lanes (there are sidewalks on both sides) and two bus and high occupancy car lanes and two traffic lanes. The stated purpose was to “force everybody to use the bus.” (The buses largely run empty. People complained so much they bought busses you can’t see into.)
This town has two universities and four lower level schools, it has a county government, a city government, it’s the state capitol and there are lots of federal offices. This town has NEVER elected a Republican. The current mayor is an out and out communist.
This kind of stuff is one reason I moved to a rural area in central KY. I’ve been here almost three years now and I’ve noticed a difference from the 45 years I lived in the Seattle area:
I don’t even think about radar cops any more as I drive. In Seattle, if I was behind the wheel, I was thinking about it, unless I was backed up in a traffic jam, which was roughly a third of the time.
I average about 70 in 55 mph zones on my 122 mile (round trip) commute every single day. I have yet to see a speed trap.