“If it is actually 2 seconds, you have a strong case in court.”
There have been numerous instances where the contractor responsible for managing the cameras decrease the time on yellow. Their contracts generally include profit sharing and if there are not adequate tickets handed out they lose money.
Some people in Dallas went to the trouble to time the lights in order to monitor the city. Apparently even after the city knew the yellow time was too short they took no action.
Dallas sucks. I drive up there a couple of times a month. The highways are toll roads, it is confusing as to which lanes to take, they have on ramps after off ramps and traffic is horrendous.
I am a licensed professional engineer in a company that specializes in this kind of engineering work. Over the last few years I have made a number of offers on this site to represent -- free of charge -- any Freeper who has been given a traffic ticket at an intersection where one of these alleged "decrease the yellow time" schemes was in place.*
There is a very specific method that is used to compute yellow intervals for traffic signals -- based on various conditions at each intersection, including posted speeds on the intersecting roadways, sight distance, allowances for increased stopping distance under certain weather conditions, etc.
To date, I have not had a single poster here accept my offer.
* My only condition is that I get 10% of any monetary damages that are awarded in civil court as a result of any lawsuit that would surely follow such a finding. I would also take great pleasure in filing all of the necessary paperwork to have the engineer responsible for such a disgraceful travesty brough up on formal ethical/disciplinary charges before the appropriate licensing board in his/her state.