It's interesting that it is presented as a benefit for Trusted Drivers rather than a Big State interference in your private life.
Of course, ticket by mail was already implemented in Switzerland when I lived there in the 1990s and in Australia when I visited in 2002. I don't know about other countries (i.e. is the US an outlier or are CH and OZ outliers among rich nations?)
I do wonder about a progression
- a select few opt in. Police barely notice, but start saying to themselves, "Oh, cool, I don't have to confront this person face to face, that's a relief."
- more people join, especially people of color who might think that as Trusted Drivers they are less likely to get pulled over for DWB. Police start to see text tickets as normal
- it becomes normal. Millennials and Gen Z thinks it's rude to telephone a friend without texting first. They hate meetings and prefer chat/email. They do not want face-to-face encounters with police. They all opt in.
- now a minority refuse to opt in. The police catch someone for a traffic violation, look it up and think, "Damn. That a##hole hasn't signed up for Trusted Driver and I have to put myself at risk and confront him/her." Now the officer is worried and in a bad mood and the encounters increasingly go poorly. More people opt in.
- now only the few are opted in. Those who are not are disproportionately hostile to law enforcement. Now you get pulled over for speeding and the officer calls in backup: "Untrusted driver 12 mph over the limit. Requesting backup."
It's sort of like the progression we've had with the denormalizing of hitchhiking. By making it such a fringe activity, it means that only people on the fringes hitch and pick up hitchhikers, which has made it probably more dangerous than 50 years ago.
