I wouldn't be surprised if the underlying reason is just another way to ticket people in order to raise revenue.
This way of raising revenue has really gotten out of hand. People getting tickets for littering when stopping to pick up a dropped MetroCard if you can believe what you read in the newspapers. Motorists getting ticketed for double parking by the police blocking you in when you try to move so they can give you a ticket. (Of course they can double or triple park and block traffic to give you the ticket.) Homeowners ticketed for $500 for an uneven sidewalk due to a tree the City planted without leaving enough room for it to grow. And if someone drops litter on your sidewalk and you're at work so you can't sweep it up or if you put out your garbage can before 5 PM or if someone throws a bottle in with your non-recyclables, that's also a reason for a $50 or $100 fine or more. They've also ticketed people for having 50 year-old fences that they've just decided are too close to the sidewalk. Now they want to add more red light cameras to ticket you if you go through a red light one hundredth of a second after it turns red, which is easy to do when some of the amber lights are not even one second long. (In Jersey they are 4 to 6 seconds long but the speed limits are higher too.)
I guess these are the "innovative" measures Bloomberg was referring to before he became mayor when he said he would use technology and innovation. Of course everything is done in the name of security and public safety, revenue is never the reason. I guess it's just a coincidence that revenue from all types of fines is at an all time high. They want you to believe that punishing lawbreakers is okay while raising taxes is not, but when you're talking about unfair laws, it amounts to the same thing.