You don't have a speedtrap issue, you have private vulture issue. Signing the enforcement right to private company is a recipe for disaster.

Edit: For everyone downvoting me, please read my follow-up responses. I'm not advocating for surveillance, I'm advocating for privacy-preserving systems that simply send a ticket if you speed, without recording your location every single time you pass any camera, rather than a system that does, because that's actually a surveillance network.

As much as it's true that a lot of these cameras are just becoming other ways to engage in surveillance, it's also true that they do a lot to manage speeding. For example, NYC had a 94% reduction in speeding in areas with the cameras. It's also true that most existing speed cameras simply aren't equipped to be converted into ALPR systems. Most ALPR deployments are done via the installation of brand-new hardware, which many places simply can't justify the additional, new costs of.

This can be done with minimal surveillance capabilities, and often is in many places. (local compute board identifies license plates, calculates speeds, sends them to an isolated cloud service, and only forwards data to the police department if it was actually a speeding infraction, otherwise the data is wiped) The ALPR cameras are primarily being installed in specific areas, but aren't always across-the-board implementations, and sometimes avoid entire cities.

For example, ALPRs are becoming popular around Washington, but the Seattle police department only has a few ALPRs solely mounted on vehicles, but zero mounted in stationary locations. ("SPD’s ALPR cameras are not fixed in location") These aren't even used for speeding cases, but are used for missing vehicle cases, and the speeding cameras are entirely separate.

It doesn't make sense to eliminate all cameras, even the speeding ones, just because other cameras can be ALPRs. We should simply advocate for removing ALPRs, not speeding cameras. This is why organizations like the EFF, dedicated to protecting people's privacy, have previously argued against these cameras broadly not because speeding cameras are also bad, but because the way those speeding camera systems were designed allowed them to also be used as ALPRs. However, I haven't seen a single case of them arguing against cameras that are solely speeding cameras with limited capacity for surveillance, because it's just not a very big issue.

Sorry, long rant 😅

Exactly.

The ones around me have a flash that goes off when it's dark out and someone runs the traffic light.

If they can only get a clear picture with a flash, it's pretty obvious they're not continuously scanning cars, at least at night.

how does a tax on speed regulate anything?

So what's your alternative? Non-hidden speedtrap at least slow people down to desirable speed in the area while allow emergency vehicle to speed through, having no speed trap and people will just speed through the area with no friction.

You must be to poor to afford lawyers to get rid of your tickets

How many people in your country can afford to hire a lawyer for a ticket write off?

probably don't even own a car that can accelerate faster than the limit.

Are the speed limit in front of the school or in the city in your country 90mph?