Slashdot Mirror
Cities Tampering With Traffic Lights To Generate Revenue
Techdirt is reporting that there has been a rash of reports indicating that red light cameras are being used to generate revenue rather than to promote safety. "Time and time again studies have shown that if cities really wanted to make traffic crossings safer there's a very simple way to do so: increase the length of the yellow light and make sure there's a pause before the cross traffic light turns green (this is done in some places, but not in many others). Tragically, it looks like some cities are doing the opposite! Jeff Nolan points out that six US cities have been caught decreasing the length of the yellow light below the legal limits in an effort to catch more drivers running red lights and [increase] revenue."
Dude, you wrote too much. It's very simple, I'll use a car analogy. Say a car is driving along and is ABOUT to pass a green light, when suddenly it turns yellow-then-red-right-away, so that going at the speed limit and slamming on the brakes the MOMENT it turns yellow still leaves you running the red light. Some cities have made this nightmare come to life by choosing a length of yellow that lets cars hit red if they had been going at the speed limit and "ABOUT to pass the light" (obviously what this means in terms of distance changes with the speed).