The Illinois State Police have photo speed enforcement vans they rotate among construction zones on the tollway system. The speed limit in construction zones is 45 mph.

With a trooper and a cruiser he cannot catch anyone else when he is in the process of writing a ticket. When drivers see that they kind of take it as an all-clear signal because the only trooper in the area is already busy.

With the photo speed enforcement vans they can issue dozens of tickets per minute. That is why I lock the cruise control in at exactly 45 mph everyday on my commute when I am going through the construction zones.

I have not seen any stories on the papers about the Illinois results of this, but I saw this article in an Akron, OH paper today and in a 19 day period they issued more than 2,600 tickets and took in almost $500,000, which works out to almost $200 a pop.

If it just cost you $200 that would be tolerable, but your insurance rates will go up several hundred dollars a year for several years. That is where it really hurts.

It the article it sounds like they didn't give drivers very much leeway over the speed limit. If I had to guess I think the Illinois State Police would probably only give you a 4 mph cushion over the speed limit with the photo enforcement. When they have to make a physical traffic stop they only want to do it for the most egregious offenders, but if the cost and risk to a trooper is zero to issue a ticket the bar is much much lower, so why not issue as many as possible.