War on Short yellow lights.

You should have looked into the cost of a speed bump.

Cheers! Rich

It's supposed to be the property owners' prerogative to decorate their buildings any damn way they please!

Thanks, Rich

No, it's always been a bad thing. The statists are essentially indistinguishable from each other, except that the People's socialists want to take your money away and give it to the lazy, negligent, and stupid poor people, while the National socialists want to take your money away and give it to the lazy, negligent, and stupid rich people.

It is kind of a surprise that the current socialist is giving your money to the rich, however.

Cheers! Rich

In So. Cal, (at least according to Traffic School ~20 years ago) if your car enters the intersection on the yellow, you are _required_ to go all the way through, red lights notwithstanding. Something to do with "gridlock", I believe.

Thanks, Rich

You're not making any sense here. The duration of the yellow is _supposed to be_ such that at ordinary speeds, when the light turns yellow, if you're closer than your safe stopping distance, you continue.

But that probably makes WAY too much sense for the bureaucrats and idiots that don't know how to drive in the first place.

Thanks, Rich

That's why people with common sense (a very rare commodity these days) don't drive like an Indy car in the rain.

Hope This Helps! Rich

I once went through an intersection that had big "Caution! Red-light cameras!" signs, and no cameras - just mounting holes with cables dangling from them.

Cheers! Rich

Ever hear of an HOA?

He was talking about the car, not the driver.

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I just lit my wicks... happy hour at Ra ;-)

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Of course there is. Plainly, a yellow time of zero seconds guarantees a ticket for everyone. As the yellow time increases from zero, you still get a ticket if it's short enough; nobody's car can stop in time. Finally, it gets long enough that quick reaction time may avoid a ticket. If it's even longer, everyone can stop before the light turns red.

I've often thought that the yellow time should be long enough that the worst case car+driver can stop before the light turns red. The oldest granny driving her Model T should be able to stop within the yellow time.

I see a formula at this web site:

that purports to be a recommended method to calculate the duration of the yellow. I see an assumed deceleration rate of 10 ft/s^2. I wonder if this is what every car on the road, old and new, can reasonably be expected to do?

Argh; I made an error in the conversion; it's actually 0.68 seconds and 6.56 m/s/s.

Should be 3.75 + 0.68 = 4.43s.

At 55mph (24.6m/s), the overall stopping distance would be 62.85m or ~206ft (which seems about right given the official figures of 175ft@50mph and 240ft@60mph).

If you decide it's too late and don't brake, it would take 2.56 seconds to cover that distance at 55mph.

That's the crossover time; so long as the yellow lasts longer than the time taken to cover the minimum stopping distance, you can either stop before the line or cross it before the light turns red.

If the yellow period was close to that figure, you might have to brake quite hard, but 4.3 seconds should be plenty long enough provided that you're driving within the limit and your vehicle is basically roadworthy.

But unless you do an emergency stop for every yellow light (most people won't), deciding whether to brake or continue depends upon knowing how long the light will stay yellow. I suspect that most people wouldn't even brake particularly hard unless they have reason to believe that they will otherwise end up running a red light.

It's more likely that people will base the decision on what they're used to, so the yellow period only needs to be shorter than "usual" and some people will end up running the light when they could (and would) have stopped if they had known the duration in advance.

US Route 22 runs across New Jersey and has traffic lights in 55 mph zones.

The way it works here in the US is a private company offers to install the cameras free, and just take a portion, 25% or so, of the fines generated. As a "bonus" they offer to maintain all the traffic lights free. Then they diddle with the timing of the yellow to increase revenue.

We have them as well. But we've also got people that can only make it half way across the road by the end of the countdown.

They need a 'progress bar' like they have for installing s/w. The first

95% goes by quickly. The last 5% takes 40% of the total time.

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
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This isn\'t right.  This isn\'t even wrong. -- Wolfgang Pauli

Check; WTF are the cops who could make their quota 5 times over at one place?

You are always lit.

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You can\'t have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!

55 mph in the rain is no big deal on a suitable road, and traffic lights in those conditions are not a problem either - provided their yellow times are appropriate.

Sylvia.

Still, get video evidence that the timing is too short given the speed limit, such that there will be some drivers for whom complying with the law will not be physically possible (allowing for human limitations such as reaction times), and that should be sufficient to defeat the traffic fines.

Laws are not usually meant to be construed so to require people to achieve the impossible.

Sylvia.