Posted on 03/11/2009 8:20:07 AM PDT by Ken H
I wonder what a one-second increase of the delay between when a light turns red to when the opposing light turns green would accomplish?
We know it would accomplish less ticket revenue.
Illegitimate reasons for traffic laws:
3. Increase government (and their agents) revenues.
4. Intimidate the general public.
Extended yellow lights may decrease violations, but if you want to decrease accidents, the best way is to delay the green lights.
While there was never any doubt that the Red Light program was about money, not safety, I am concerned about arbitrarily adding one second to yellow lights. However, this is a lost cause in the long run. It is a done deal. What people should be worried about now is “congestion pricing”, which is not yet a done deal.
There is a formula to calculate yellow times. It takes into account, traffic speed, width of the intersection, whether it is going uphill or downhill, etc. MANY studies have shown that making the yellow light one second shorter OR LONGER than then what the formula came up with causes MORE accidents.
The yellow lights should be set at the proper length and should not be changed for political (or revenue) reasons.
A rare example of useful legislation.
Lilburn voted to accept the suspension to give Lasercraft time to come up with a plan to increase the number of citations.
Maybe they'll try falsifying the photos.
A few years ago, I was driving though Brecksville, Ohio. As I came to the light at 82 and 21, there was a cop standing there with a little box in his hand. He was running the signal by hand just to catch people. I guess he didn’t like the looks of my work van, because he flashed the yellow for no more than a second before turning the light red. I slammed on my brakes, and did not get a ticket. I glared at the cop. Jerk stood there and laughed at me.
That policy is even worse than cameras!
“Extended yellow lights may decrease violations, but if you want to decrease accidents, the best way is to delay the green lights.”
Agree, after a light turns red, wait about 2 seconds before the other light turns green. This would help prevent accidents for drivers that enter the intersection after the light turns red, and also for dealing with the legitimate residual traffic that entered when the light was green or yellow, but had to wait to make a left turn.
This is, in fact, the case in every installation. Signal programming is often turned over to the contract camera provider so the local officials can have plausible deniability.
Democrats will probably start pushing to eliminate the yellow light. ;-)
A tip 'o the derby to those Georgia politicians. This should be passed in every state of the Union. The "for public safety" hypocrisy is particularly galling when they take an in-your-face approach in defending the use of the cameras.
Ping
If the concern is REALLY about safety, then every intersection in the US should immediately lengthen the duration of the yellow lights.
Unless it really isn’t about safety.
Note it isn't the city that is concerned about dropping revenue as Lasercraft is. I wonder if they are like other red light camera vendors, getting 50% of each violation payment (and probably a greater percentage of the fine, per contract, when a reduced fine is struck as a compromise between a community and a delinquent driver who initially declines to pay).
Didn’t Michael Dukakis try to eliminate right turns on red?
“Every time in my entire life I have been pulled over by a motorcycle, I have gotten a ticket of some sort.”
One night, I watched a guy make a (normally legal, if done safely) U-turn into the southbound lane about 150 ft. in front of a police motorcycle going about 30 mph in the same lane southbound. (Collins Ave., Miami Beach) The driver got stopped. IMO episodes like this explain why motorcycle cops don’t give warnings;)
b
These cameras were NEVER about safety ... revenue generation was and is the goal.
Protect and Serve my A$$. The vast majority of cops in my neck of the woods are now just glorified Revenue Enhancement Officers (REOs) with guns, badges, and attitudes. I pass the same spot every morning and most days there is a motorcycle cop with someone pulled over making a forced withdrawal from the human ATM occupant who was trying to make their way to work on time. Just wait until they force this whole GPS road tax stuff down our throats, then we’ll just get tickets in the mail since GPS can tell them where you were, what the speed limit is at that location, and how fast you were going. Cha ching.
What’s even worse is that so much of the punishment revenue goes to private corporations. It’s highway robbery. But apparently legislators like the lobbyists for these things.
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