They did a news piece on this in Dallas, and interviewed the woman whose department oversees these kinds of programs. She said the lights were set according to some national standard, but at the bare minimum allowed.
When the reporter quoted statistics that accidents could be further eliminated (by a large percent) simply by extending the yellow light, she said she didn't think that was necessary. Was kind of snooty about the whole thing. (I did not like her, and wished the reporter would have grilled her more.)
Maybe I should add that I do NOT trust the city of Dallas at all, and believe this is mainly a revenue-generator for them. I just want people to stop running the damn red lights.
This is how I research my case, if you’re interested.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=75766
It’s been 5 years and that light is still poorly timed.
Might be helpful if you get a picture ticket, those lights need to be timed correctly, or at least they should post how many seconds the yellow is before the intersection. Give the drivers a fair warning that they want their money at any cost.
You might want to see post 21. There is a standard. There is no reputable study (ie: peer reviewed) that says that increasing the yellow interval will substantially reduce accidents. I
have been pointed to a reputable study by several people here (in the past) that does advocate increasing the interval. But when you actually read the report (instead of just googling a few key words), it only advocates changing the maximum time interval of 5 seconds (which is now used) to 5-1/2 seconds. Not a big change. The evidence that this will make ANY change in accident statistics is pretty slim. At best, the author proved that extending the yellow interval would not increase accidents.