Yellow Light Timing
 

There was a lot of hub-bub over Red Light cameras a while back and I thought that there was legislation passed that limited or did away with them but suddenly it's back!!

Dallas, Richardson, Plano and at least one other city are suddenly putting them up. One of them is just a few blocks from my house.

At least one of the cities has entered into a revenue sharing agreement with a private company (so tell me it's not just for the money) so that they can get more of them up.

There are many issues with them but the main ones I see are

1) the ticket goes to car owner not the driver
2) the pictures don't document circumstances (like the semi fishtailing behind you)
3) light timing
4) the increase in rear end collisions in camera controlled intersections (when I was taking drivers ed I was told the Yellow meant stop if you safely can now they are saying a yellow light is the same thing as a red light.)

It seems that many cities around the county with the cameras have decreased the time the light spends as yellow to increase revenue, Plano being one of those cities. But IIRC in Texas there are some state mandated minimum yellow light times.

Does someone know chapter and verse on that or can someone tell me how to find those? I've looked but haven't been able to find anything at all about signal lights.

I haven't gotten a ticket but it seems inevitable that I or someone in my family will so I am trying to be prepared in advance.

Bummer, I think Carrollton has them at select intersections. Every time I drive out of plano and into carrollton I tend to relax only to see another white camera sitting on top of the light pole.

The traffic cameras in so cal where my parents are look like giant white boxes so they're pretty easy to spot but they will get you every single time. I wonder if not having a front license plate might help?

The ones in Richardson are fairly large white boxes to the side of the intersection. There are 2 boxes so I am presuming one is a flash for night time.

Just to be safe I have bought some spacers to lean my license plates slightly downward and I have ordered that spray on blocker that you see advertised in so many car mags. I know the blocker only works at night time in a flash situation but some protection is better than none.

This site has some references..

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/02/243.asp

http://www.highwayrobbery.net/index.htm

The study found that improving signal visibility reduced violations 25 percent. Other changes could net between 18 and 48 percent reductions. Yet they found when the yellow signal was 1 second shorter than what the standard ITE timing formula specifies as a minimum, red light violations jumped 110%. Adding an additional second to the ITE minimum yellow yielded 53% reduction in violations, producing the greatest benefit of all the factors studied (2-6). When safety is the main concern, preventing crashes is more important than reducing violations. Yellow signal timing again proved most effective in reducing crashes. An extra second yielded a 40 percent collision reduction.

That spray blocker stuff actually works pretty well, my dad put it on his CL type S license plates and hasn't gotten a ticket yet. Also in CA i think they have to take a picture of your face so he always puts his sunvisor down and puts his head to the roof behind it if he runs a light :D

I wonder if it would work on the tollway... ;)

I would have to dig out some of my social psychology course work, but there have been studies about the timing of yellow lights. Those studies have shown that no matter how long or short the duration of a yellow is, you get about the same number of people running red lights. Anticipation and adaptation are just what we humans are good at...

To my understanding, the camera only takes a pic when the light actually turns red... so just be more attentive to the car in front of you and you should be fine when it comes to getting in a wreck

Am I the only person here who actively tries not to run red lights and could care less about the cameras.

I try not to run yellows and i dont run reds. And i havent been in a wreck that was my fault in over 21 years.

It isn't an issue of actively not trying to run red lights. With the cameras if you are heading thru and it turns yellow and the car ahead of you brakes and delays you crossing the intersection then you get a ticket.

There are many things outside your control that a camera doesn't record outside the fact that so many communities are reducing the amount of time the light stays yellow just so they can generate extra revenue.

I've run a few yellows and maybe a few reds...but I try real hard not to, it's pretty easy.

A comment on the "semi fishtailing behind you" situation: keep in mind that by law safety is NEVER a valid reason to speed or break any other traffic regulation. I got a ticked by a cop for avoiding him crashing into me.

I don't agree that yellow light timing makes no difference; but only because they are not ALL on the same timing. Sure we can adapt to a consistent time, but that's not how yellow lights work. I would seem to me that the study which found longer yellows were safer and reduced violations (basically the same I'd think) would be correct, and slower ones were more dangerous. They are outside the mean time, so would get "misjudged".