Cheating With Traffic Lights

Last week, we reported on the dysfunctional aspects of traffic light police cameras. In that post, we mentioned a Tennessee judge who actually timed a light in Chattanooga and found it had been set incorrectly.

It turns out there are five other sleazy local municipalities that have shortened their yellow lights in order to catch more violators running reds, thereby collecting more revenue. Now you can add Dallas and Lubbock, Texas, Springfield, Mo., Union City, Calif., and Nashville, Tenn., to the list of cities who owe citizens reparations.

With this practice so geographically widespread, we recommend that the next time you get a speeding ticket, take a stopwatch and actually time the light. A yellow should last about 4.5 seconds.

Six Cities Busted for Shortening Yellow Light (Autoblog)

Comments

4.5 seconds is an average (3-6 seconds is mentioned in the article). On streets without heavy vehicle traffic and without high speeds less that 4.5 seconds is more than adequate. There is one light near my house that in one directions stays yellow for about 8 seconds, which is waaaaay too long. The speed limit is 25mph.

I've heard form a fellow who called the traffic department that they typically set them for 1 sec/10mph of the speed limit. And to me that makes sense. These municipalities are endangering other people waiting for their green unless they program them to be delayed which I doubt.
Pretty shameless.

Those are only the ones that got caught. Houston has been playing with the timing downtown. Three seconds? I wish.

Most lights on the south side of downtown have two second yellows and one second all-way reds.

Except around the red light cameras where, not just at the camera intersection, about 6-8 weeks ago they cut a lot of the yellows to under one second and, at least at one intersection, got rid of the all-way red.

It varies weekly, but most of the intersections are usually back at 2 seconds and 1 second.

Did I mention that these street are 30 MPH and so badly timed that people go 40-50+ trying to time the lights?