But I think his point was that the same cop in the same amount of time could follow a motorist and get him or her for much, much bigger fines. Meaning much more revenue for the department.
A police officer sitting for five minutes at any intersection on any given day will undoubtedly see dozens of offenses for which he could write the driver a ticket.
There's no shortage of things for cops to ticket people for. If all they want to do is write someone a ticket (to solve their budget deficit or whatever), they need look no further than motorists. In that regard, there is absolutely no reason for them to invent new reasons to ticket people when they already have a virtually unlimited source available.
Especially fix-it tickets for cyclists. An easy target, but rather limited.
By the way, I'm old enough to remember when you could go to traffic school in CA once a year, and that would wipe out the ticket. Last time I got one there, you had to pay the full fine, plus a fee for the privilege of going to traffic school, plus traffic school. And it's what, once every three years now?