Red light cameras encourage perverse incentives whilst not actually meaningfully improving safety. There isn’t any “good” worth protecting.

In real conditions there is often a maximum distance that one can maintain between cars as giving a big enough gap will cause it to be filled by another car. Also people have both a minimum reaction time and stopping distance that is greater than the practical distance that exists in real traffic. Slamming on your brakes too abruptly is likely to cause accidents in real situations with real drivers with real reaction times.