6 Cities That Were Caught Shortening Yellow Light Times For Profit
Short yellow light times at intersections have been shown to increase the number of traffic violations and accidents. Conversely, increasing the yellow light duration can dramatically reduce red-light violations at an intersection.
Some local governments have ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration, and collect the profits instead.
Here are some of the cities that have been caught with short yellow light times over the past few years:
Important note: These news stories were collected from the archives of TheNewspaper.com, an excellent resource for anyone interested in traffic laws and other motorist issues. If you subscribe to TheNewspaper.com’s feed, you’ll never miss the latest news. It makes an excellent complement to this blog.
1) Chattanooga, Tennessee
The city of Chattanooga was forced refund $8800 in red light cameras tickets issued to motorists trapped by an illegally short yellow time. The refund only occurred after a motorist challenged his citation by insisting that the yellow light time of 3.0 seconds was too short. LaserCraft, the private vendor that runs the camera program in return for a cut of the profits, provided the judge with a computer database that asserted the yellow was 3.8 seconds at that location.
The judge then personally checked the intersection in question was timed at three seconds while other nearby locations had about four seconds of yellow warning. City traffic engineer John Van Winkle told Bean that “a mix up with the turn arrow” was responsible and that the bare minimum for the light should be 3.9 seconds.
2) Dallas, Texas
An investigation by KDFW-TV, a local TV station, found that of the ten cameras that issued the greatest number of tickets in the city, seven were located at intersections where the yellow duration is shorter than the bare minimum recommended by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).
The city’s second highest revenue producing camera, for example, was located at the intersection of Greenville Avenue and Mockingbird Lane. It issued 9407 tickets worth $705,525 between January 1 and August 31, 2007. At the intersections on Greenville Avenue leading up to the camera intersection, however, yellows are at least 3.5 or 4.0 seconds in duration, but the ticket-producing intersection’s yellow stands at just 3.15 seconds. That is 0.35 seconds shorter than TxDOT’s recommended bare minimum. Dallas likewise installed the cameras at locations with existing short yellow times. A total of twenty-one camera intersections in Dallas had yellow times below TxDOT’s bare minimum recommended amount.
The ticket camera program in Dallas made the news recently for shutting down some of its cameras because they were no longer profitable.
3) Springfield, Missouri
The city of Springfield, Missouri prepared for the installation of a red light camera system in 2007 by slashing the yellow warning time by one second at 105 state-owned intersection signals across the city.
The city defended its effort to the Springfield News-Leader by claiming it was “standardizing” and had increased the yellow time at 136 city-operated lights to meet national standards. During the city council meeting last October where the red light camera ordinance was approved, however, Assistant Director of Public Works Earl Newman gave a different explanation for the reduction. Newman said he was, “concerned that many individuals run the light if the light remained yellow too long.”
4) Lubbock, Texas
KBCD, a local television station, exposed the city’s short timing of yellow lights at eight of the twelve intersections where the devices were to be installed.
Prior to the news investigation, Lubbock City Engineer Jere Hart assured city council members that he would not increase yellow times. According to the city council’s traffic commission minutes of September 19, 2006, Jere said, “if [the red light camera program is] implemented, the public would prefer to have an increased amber cycle,” but he stated that, “the program will not adjust the amber/yellow time.”
Shortly after the investigation became public, red-light cameras were installed in Lubbock. However, after they proved to be both unprofitable (due in part to a new state law giving 50% of the ticket camera profit to the state) and unsafe (accidents increased where the cameras were installed), they were taken down.
5)Nashville, Tennessee
Even without red light cameras, police in Nashville, Tennessee have been earning hundreds of thousands in revenue by trapping motorists in conventional ticket traps at city intersections with the shortest yellow warning time.
In 2006, Nashville resident Joe Savage obtained the data on every red light running ticket issued on Broadway street since 2000. He said that yellow lights are longer at intersections along Broadway until the areas where police are issuing tickets. At those locations, Savage clocked the yellow signal time at less than 3 seconds, in violation of both state law and federal regulations. A local newspaper, The Nashville Scene, then confirmed his findings.
6) Union City, California
In 2005, Union City, California was caught trapping motorists with a yellow signal time 1.3 seconds below the minimum established by state law. As a result, the city was forced to refund more than $1 million in red light camera fines.
The city’s violation came to light after Dave Goodson, an engineer, received a ticket and realized that he did not have sufficient time to stop before the light had turned red. As a result of his inquiries, Union City’s traffic engineers admitted that they had set the yellow signal time at Union City Boulevard and Lowry Road at 3 seconds, despite the state law mandating the time be 4.3 seconds or greater.
Authorities said that the yellow was too short long before the cameras were installed, but that no effective system was in place to verify the timing of the traffic signals despite their direct impact on safety.
Closing Notes:
These are only the cities that have been caught; it’s likely that this happens much more than the general public has been led to believe. Many cities avoid the bad publicity involved with shortening yellow lights by installing the cameras at intersections with inadequate yellow light times from the beginning.
If you or a family member receive an unjustified red-light violation ticket, it may be worth your time to check the yellow light duration at the intersection where the ticket was given out.
Also, if you know of any city currently shortening yellow lights in your area, let everyone know by posting it the comments of this post.
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It really ticks me off that this kind of abuse is so rampant. Supposedly, the whole point of adding cameras was to get people to stop running red lights, thus PREVENTING accidents. However, it seems clear that many city officials care nothing about the safety of their constituents and everything about padding their own salaries. To go so far as to do something that will INCREASE accidents by providing too short of a time for motorists to safely stop is clearly an abhorrent crime. These people should not only be charged with what is essentially fraud but also with accessory to murder for anyone who has been killed trying to drive through one of these unsafe intersections.
When this photo radar scam was installed in our Colorado city, we were informed that about 25% of the fine goes to the city and 75% to the company that operates this scam. Further, these “speeding tickets” and their points do NOT go on your driving record. That’s proof to me that this is simply a speeding tax and a money maker for the gutless corrupt corporate controlled government in this nation…even on a little bitty local basis. It’s a s much of a joke as our fair tax system run by the IRS Mafia.
[...] runners. The original report detailing the 6 cities that tampered with yellow light timing is here. This entry was written by Chris, posted on April 13, 2008 at 12:19 pm, filed under Asides, Misc, [...]
When returning to San Francisco, late one rainy evening, I was caught by a red light camera at the intersection of Lake Street and Park Presidio Boulevard.
The intersection in question is the first traffic light one sees in San Francisco after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.
To make matters worse, it is at the bottom of a slope – terrible conditions for stopping rapidly, even moreso in wet conditions, late at night, at the end of a long drive – and is encountered immediately after emerging from a long tunnel that goes beneath the Presidio.
It is, according to everything I have read on this site, perfectly located for extracting maximum revenue from people who are not San Francisco or Bay Area residents, hence, less likely to protest and unable to return and examine the behavior of the light.
I would be keenly interested in hearing from others whom have received tickets from this intersection’s camera or whom have ideas on how to contact everyone whom has been affected by this camera’s operations.
I can be reached at POB 105, 945 Taraval St, SF CA 94116.
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I think Marysville, CA is also doing this at the intersection of 3rd and F.
[...] love to see an investigation like this done in Phoenix. Tags: Cameras, corruption, Red [...]
San Bernardino CA might be doing this at Hospitality and Waterman. Beware!
[...] National Motorists Association posted an article about six cities since 2005 that have been busted for having yellow-light times [...]
I believe the City of Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County, Michigan, have shortened yellows.
“no effective system was in place to verify the timing of the traffic signals despite their direct impact on safety.”
I guess they haven’t heard of stop watches in Union City?
@ Bill Gomes and anyone else trying to fight a short yellow.
I would VIDEOTAPE the light at the intersection in question. Your stopwatch and testimony is not nearly as convincing as a tape. In the off chance that any of these go to jury hard evidence is always better than testimony. And do it before they adjust the timing.
I live in Dallas and a friend of mine has been issued several tickets because of these cameras. There is one at Coit & Campbell in North Dallas. The yellow light does not stay that way for long. I avoid that intersection because of all the accidents. I think there is one off of Greenville and Abrams as well.
Be carefull and take care
TO BILL GOMES:
GO GET ‘EM BILL. SOUNDS TO ME LIKE THEY’RE TRYING TO GIVE YOU THE BUFFALO SHUFFLE. ALSO SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK WITH YOUR RESEARCH.
BEST OF LUCK.
RICK GOLD
Did You recieve my first e-mail regarding Yellow Light durations in Stockton California?
Please respond, as I got a message that indicated my 1′st message did not go through.
Thanks Bill Gomes
Elk Grove California
I recently received a traffic ticket in the mail for running a red light at a photo enforced traffic signal intersection.
I recalled the incident because of the photo light flash, and thinking, that was a really quick yellow light.
I was driving the speed limit, 40 miles per hour as I approached the intersection. I was nearly at the crosswalk when the light turned Yellow, to close to slam on the brakes and stop. I entered the intersection on a yellow light and was about 2/3′s to 3/4′s of the way through the intersection when the photo light flashed.
About 3 weeks latter ( the violation date on the notice is 3/04/08, I do not know that to be accurate). the amount of the fine $349.50, due by 4/03/08 Approximately 1 to 1 1/2 weeks after receiving the notice in the male hardly enough time to research the laws and find out where I stood.
I finely found your web-site on the internet and discovered the the State law requires a 4.3 sec. duration for yellow lights. So I purchased a stop watch and went back to Stockton, Ca, on Hammer lane just off Hwy 99. I Checked the yellow light duration at 11 intersection from Highway 99 west on Hammer Lane in Stockton, including the one they claim I ran the red light (West Lane & Hammer Lane – Which they failed to mention on the citation). All but 2 Clocked at 3.72 to 3.93 duration for the yellow light except Holman & Hammer Lane 4.94 and Sampson and Hammer Lane 4.82.
West Lane and Hammer Lane, a photo enforced intersection ( West Lane by the way is a 2lane + 1 turn lane in each direction as is Hammer Lane + an island which makes the intersections approximately 250′ to 300′ crossing) and the Intersection where the claim I ran the red light.
It is my belief that Stockton Ca. is engaging in the same kind of revenue enhancement programs that your other 6 cities have engaged in.
I have not resolved my violation notice as yet, as i have just gathered the information I believe is needed to appear in court and resolve this matter.
Do You have any suggestions on how I should proceed.
I appreciate your input.
Thanks Bill Gomes
Elk Grove California
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Savannah, Ga.
On Abercorn just before you get to Mall blvd. headed East.
I also live in Knoxville, TN. I received a red light violation recently in an intersection that i frequent. At this light, the yellow light is down two about 2.5 seconds. I am amazed this is allowed. They often show the profits made off of the red light cameras on the news. The numbers are astounding. The city made $955,000 at $50 per ticket in 2007 . Unbelievable.
St. Louis, MO and surrounding suburbs are using the cameras and short yellows.
There is some suspicion that now that Houston has begun placing cameras at red lights they may also be shortening the length of the yellow lights around them. Is this anyway to pay for the cameras? You bet!!
[...] Cities That Were Caught Shortening Yellow Light Times For Profit [...]