Speeding: If you believe the hype, the fact that I was travelling at over the posted limit was endangering the lives of innocent people. The slogan reads "Every k over is a killer". The price the government has put on this offence is $90
Stopping distance is proportional to v2, where v is your velocity (actually, a bit more than that, since your tires' friction decreases at higher speeds). This means that going 71km/h instead of 60km/h means that you take at least 1.4 times the distance to stop. Add to the fact that this is at night, and factoring in your reaction time (assuming you were sober), your stopping distance may easily increase from roughly 40m to about 60m. This margin would be further increased due to the age of the car (wear on tires, old brakes, etc.), but even this difference is massive! That's about 5 car lengths.
You should be grateful about this. Why are you so bitter? Ideally you'd be threatened with reckless endangerment, which carries a much larger penalty than $90.
Not producing my licence: As mentioned above, the officer made a call and 2 minutes later it was answered after a quick check had been done on my details. No chance of deaths, merely an inconvenience (and a small one at that). The price for this offence is $150.
So maybe this is a bit rough - but I can think of a multitude of reasons why you should be carrying your license with you:
- If the officer's radio did not work, would you expect him to arrest you?
- Lack of license allows you to falsify your identity, which would cause even more trouble and difficulty (thanks to pjd for this one)
- In the event of a collision where you get hurt, immediate identification can speed treatment
- In the event of a casualty-free incident, you can prove your identity to the other driver, especially if you don't have proof of insurance with you
They may be raising revenue, but I'm all for that. I'd prefer that people who knowingly break the law pay a larger contribution. If not for them, taxes might have to be raised.
Don't forget that in an ideal world there wouldn't be any need for fines or punishments. However, we do not live in such a utopia, so fines also act as a mechanism to minimise the temptation for us to "bend the rules".
(based on an idea from pjd)