Should Traffic Fines simply be Abolished?

[Crazy Dazz]

Seems to me they serve no useful purpose, other than revenue.

Now I don't mind the idea of the government getting revenue from violations, after-all they have to raise money somewhere, but it occurs to me that the effectiveness of monetary penalties depends completely on your wealth, and that simply isn't fair.

For rich ****s and CUBs, a $200 fine (with no demerits) is inconsequential.
But for some families that's the week's groceries.

I also think that it skews Police behaviour. Because its revenue focussed, they don't care who cops to the fine, as long as its paid. That means even with demerits, there's too much scope to easily avoid the repercussions.
It also seems that the methodology is now increasingly geared towards automated revenue collection. Speed cameras and computers issue and collect fines, without any need for human involvement, and therefore nobody bothers to check that the correct person is being pinged.

I also suspect, that a system based not on money but on actually penalising repeat offenders, would be more likely to be targetted on black-spots, rather the straight-stretch speed-cameras we see now.

My proposal is simple: Replace all fines with demerit points, with the number of points and their duration increasing for more severe offences. When your points exceed the limit, your license is suspended until enough points expire to put you X% under the limit.