Increased Yellow Light Times Make Ticket Cameras Unnecessary
As a follow-up to our last post on short yellow light times, a local newspaper in Denver reports that the city is reconsidering its plan to install red-light cameras after the paper’s investigation revealed short yellow light times across the city.
Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for cities to install ticket cameras without implementing simple engineering changes like increasing the duration of yellow lights at intersections.
Local news media can play a key role in protecting the public by keeping city officials on their toes. If you’re concerned about yellow light times in your city, calling the local media and suggesting an investigation is an excellent way to force change.
An excerpt from the Rocky Mountain News story:
Denver is re-examining its plans for its first red light cameras after a Rocky Mountain News investigation found that the locations had short yellow lights, which could make the intersections ticket traps and accident hot spots.
Traffic engineers will do a quick study of the four camera locations to determine whether the yellow signal should be increased from the legal minimum of three seconds – timing that’s considered appropriate for 25 mph traffic.
The four intersections that Denver has selected have speed limits ranging from 30 to 45 mph, with traffic going faster than that, and other conditions that call for greater yellow time, up to 4.3 seconds or more. Denver, as a matter of policy, has used the three-second minimum at most of its 1,250 signals for decades.
Local officials have now conceded that increased yellow light times may be the best way to proceed:
[City engineering director, Brian Mitchell] said that Denver will select four similar intersections where yellow timing will be modified to see if that alone reduces accidents.
Denver’s locations are all one- way, multi-lane approaches: the east end of the Sixth Avenue Freeway at Kalamath Street, eastbound Sixth at Lincoln Street, westbound Eighth Avenue at southbound Speer Boulevard and northbound Quebec Street at 36th Avenue.
All have three-second yellow lights for which the standards call for more time. If the yellow is set too short for the existing traffic conditions, drivers must choose between braking hard or running the red.
Numerous studies on red light cameras show that while they can reduce the number of more serious T-bone type crashes, they more often result in a spike in rear-end collisions. Aurora put them in two years ago and the number of tickets and accidents has gone up.
The article goes on to mention that increasing the yellow light time has already worked for other Colorado cities:
Fort Collins put in cameras on South College Avenue at Drake Road in 1997. For eight years, an average of 166 tickets were generated every month, while the accident rate at the corner went up 83 percent over 10 years.
In August 2005, traffic engineers bumped the yellow light from four seconds to five.
“Within a week, the police called us,” said Ward Stanford, acting traffic engineer. “They knew pretty quick we had done something because the infractions went down significantly.”
You can read the full story here.
Image Credit: Citizen Mira
Other Related Articles
- 6 Cities That Were Caught Shortening Yellow Light Times For Profit
- Short Yellow Light Times No Longer Going Unnoticed
- 9 Ways To Improve Traffic Safety That The Government Will Ignore Because They Are Too Busy Ticketing You
- Essential Material For Ticket Camera Activists
- Help Us Stop Short Yellow Lights
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I can’t believe how stupid these NMA members are who write these editorials. They want to anger the readers so that the reader supports thier fight. Lengthening the yellow light will not make the cameras unprofitable. there will still be people who proceed incorrectly into the intersection under the yellow light even if you make it longer. In fact the longer the time on the yellow light the bigger the dilema zone and the more people who will have to make a choice at the last second. which could result in more rear-end crashes. Instead of lengthening the yellow light time it properly to the approach speed limit and then add the 1 second you were going to add to the yellow to the opposing red so that your light is red 1 whole second before the opposing traffic turns from red to green. This would dramatically decrease the number of run through crashes at intersection because 1 traffic completely stops before the other is prompted to go. If this method would decrease the number of run through crashes, which it will, then it can also be used to combat red light cameras. This of course is only true if drivers proceed through the intersection correctly when prompted by the yellow light. the yellow light is NOT a hurry up the light is going to turn red signal and it has two basic messages. 1)if you have not entered the intersection do not enter the intersection once the yellow light has illuminated 2)If you are in the intersection when the yellow light illuminates proceed and clear the intersection for the opposing traffic. If you note these messages and drive according to those messages an increased red interval that delays the green for opposing traffic there will be no chance of getting a red light citation or being involved in a intersection crash. This method also allows the cameras to do what they were placed there for and catch only true red light running drivers and not the marginally close drivers who were in the dilema zone. Instead of blowing the issue out of proportion as the NMA and it’s editorial writers did maybe just some simple common sense can be used to make an undesirable situation disappear.
I suppose you could try to claim that at 92% reduction in straight ahead violations was not relevant to safety or proof that the scameras are principally about revenue, but most folks would not see that as true. Adding one second to EITHER the yellow or the red is equally effective for reducing or preventing high speed t-bone crashes. People who want true safety and the end to the predatory use of scameras for wallet rape will add it to the yellow, people who want lots of scamera violations and the maximum scamera revenue will add it to the all red. The City of Loma Linda now "gets it" and wants the scameras where they belong, in the trash dump.
Another city has had enough, but Redflex is resisting a straightforward request to take their products back – unless the city coughs up over a half-million dollars. Note the 92% reduction in straight ahead violations with 1.0 seconds more yellow. Note the lack of any provable safety benefits from cameras in four years. Note that the cameras at only four intersections generated $12 to $14 million dollars, with no real safety benefits. How DO you spell SCAM ? Note the pitiful lack of comprehension of the issue by the Public Works Director.
California: Longer Yellows Nearly Eliminate Violations
Posted: 19 Feb 2010 12:02 AM PST
Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia succeeded last week in blocking efforts to end red light camera ticketing in Loma Linda, California. While several members of the city council expressed a desire to uproot the automated ticketing machines, Redflex insisted that could not be done unless the city paid $534,558 in early termination penalties. The council declined to take any action at its February meeting.
The problems began after the city extended the duration of yellow lights in November. This engineering enhancement reduced the number of straight through violations to drop to near zero with the consequence that only citations for rolling right-hand turns remained. With a pricetag of $456 for each of these citations, the council had been hit with complaints about such a stiff fine for a type of violation that does not cause accidents.
"I have received a number of complaints and emails from individuals," Councilman Ovidu Popescu said. "They teach you in business that for one complaint, that's at least ten individuals who are very upset."
Popescu and Councilman Rhodes Rigsby led the charge to terminate the camera contract immediately because the program enraged constituents without providing any safety benefit.
"I'm not sure the statistics when it comes to auto accidents — it doesn't show a decrease in accidents," Rigsby said. "If we're going to fine our visitors and our citizens $12 or $14 million over four years, we should at least expect a safety benefit, and I just don't see it."
The council, on the other hand, was extremely pleased with the results of lengthening yellow lights by one second in November. The number of left-turn violations dropped 80 to 85 percent from about 240 monthly violations to about 25 or 30 a month immediately after the change. Straight through violations were reduced 92 percent.
"Lengthening yellow lights has produced a tremendous drop in violations," Rigsby said. "The statistics from January are very telling. For four intersections, there were five straight through violations in total. That is tremendous improvement in safety. We're talking about huge success of lengthening the yellow lights… We could have had that safety with lengthening the yellow four years ago instead of installing red light cameras."
Councilman Floyd Petersen wanted to know why city staff never tried lengthening yellow before.
"Councilman Rigsby brought up the issue and pushed on it really hard," Petersen said. "We have a whole profession out there called traffic engineers. We pay these people a lot of money to figure out the best way to set up the lights. Where are these people? Why haven't they ever suggested lengthening the yellow light? What's the deal? They aren't being paid off by the camera people, are they?"
City staff defended the idea of keeping the cameras and endorsed short yellows.
"If you lengthen the yellow light, you reduce the green light," Public Works Director T. Jarb Thaipejr said. "So then I will get a call from someone who said, 'I waited so long at the red light.' The whole idea of traffic engineering is to move the traffic."
Popescu vowed to bring early termination to a vote next month. The contract will expire on its own in December.
I’d like to add a comment about Dayton Ohio, They have also installed Camera’s and I believe that yellow light shortening caused my wife to recieve a ticket recently on Salem at Grand Ave. She swears that the light was yellow when she entered the intersection, the photo we recieved shows the light red in the middlke of the intersection, her travel speed was estimated at 32 miles per hour in a 35 MPH zone. There are camera’s in other places as well where the yellow light changes very rapidly to red. Shouldn’t there be an advocate for citizens against camera’s at intersections?
[...] Increased Yellow Light Times Make Ticket Cameras Unnecessary [...]
[...] study performed by the National motorists association has shown that increasing the time that a light is Yellow during it’s cycle can markedly improve the safety of that intersection. Conversely, [...]