Correct. I often walk down a road with a 20mph 'limit' where most cars are doing around 40 - and some appear to be doing more like 50. There's simply no economically viable way to enforce it, so it will continue like this until there have been a couple of fatalities.
Not a chance. And that is a good thing. This knee jerk towards "lets just monitor everyone, everywhere and automate the law" is antithetical to a free society. Most people know that, which is why speed camera votes always send that company (RedFlex or whoever) packing.
I don't know about the US, but where I live speed camera are relatively large bright colored boxes with reflective stripes on the side of the road, with mandatory "speed camera ahead" warnings.
Most of them are empty but people unfamliar with the place will usually slow down.
The laws are state and local. In AZ it's a city or township, then the people put it on the ballot and it gets shut down. Tucson voted 65% no cameras, and later we got a state wide ban on highways, so it's a still a work in progress. The tickets are civil law, so you can throw it out, frame it, or make a coffee table book if you get enough:)
You can lower speeds quite drastically with better street design, no enforcement needed. Make the road narrower and curvier instead of wide open and straight. You can even add bumps.
