Ban the Cams Note:  Note how Collier County's Transportation Division LIES OUT OF THEIR TEETH on AMBER TIME.  LONGER AMBERS WORK!  THEY KNOW IT WORKS FOR OVER A DECADE!  IT HAS BEEN KNOWN SINCE THE HOUSE CONGRESSION REPORT http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/reports/rlcreport.asp .  Heck, VA did a test lenghtening a Amber from 4 to 5.5, result 90% reduction over 43 MONTHS Later http://www.motorists.org/photoenforce/home/red-light-camera-citations-down/. 

I Don't often go out an say someone is POINT BLANK LYING, but look at those reports and make up your own mind.  I THINK COUNTY OFFICIALS ARE LYING!  AND I AM NOT AFRAID TO SAY IT EITHER!  The evidence that LONGER AMBERS WORK IS OVERWHELMING! Here is LOMA LINDA, CA  WHO JUST DROPPED RLC DUE TO LONGER AMBERS! http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/30/3055.asp.  Than don't forget about the GA towns that dropped RLC except Atlanta WHO BROKE THE LAW AND KEPT AMBERS SHORT.  (on earlier post on this site in May.)

Thanks to Camerafraud for the heads up.

http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=12515137
Yellow light timing
Posted: May 20, 2010 1:07 PM EDT
Updated: May 21, 2010 6:01 PM EDT
Video Gallery
 
Yellow light timing
3:20 

Numbers are how math tutor Mike Mogil makes his living.

A few weeks ago, his number crunching skills were put to the test when his wife ran a red light.

"She got one of those letters in the mail that said, 'Ha, ha you've been camera-ed,'" he laughed.

His wife told him the yellow light was too short. So armed with a stopwatch, Mogil timed it.

He sat in his car for 15 cycles. His wife was right.

The yellow light timed out at 3.87 seconds, well below the Institute of Traffic Engineers recommendation of 4.5 seconds on a 45 MPH road.

"She should have been through the intersection rather than getting cited," Mogil explained.

So, he took his case to court. And won. But his victory had unintended consequences.

While the county increased the time on the yellow light his wife went through, it decreased the time on all of the other yellow lights.

Travell: "The yellow light times are less then they used to be?"
Dean: "It's a minimal amount, two tenths of a second."

Armed with a stopwatch and a video camera we timed the yellow lights in Collier County, and found them to be 4.3 seconds.

"It's now 4.3 seconds for the yellow interval, which is keeping with Florida Department of Transportation guidelines," explained Connie Dean, who is with Collier County's Transportation Division.

Digging deeper, the NBC2 Investigators found Charlotte County also goes by F-DOT standards. But in Lee County, drivers have 4.5 seconds for a yellow light.

Travell: "Why not be a little giving? Let them have their 4.5 seconds to get through if that's what we've been doing all along?"
Dean: "We want to be consistent with FDOT guidelines."

"When the yellow light gets shorter, it's asking for more people to be cited with violations," said Mogil.

The NBC2 Investigators found a study done by Texas A&M University that shows increasing the yellow light time by just one second can reduce the number of drivers who run red lights by 50 - 70-percent.

Dean disagrees.

"If you allow too much yellow time people try to push the envelope so to speak. Trying to run through and that's when we have more problems," she said.

But the study refutes that idea, stating "Analysis indicates that drivers do adapt to an increase in yellow duration; however, the frequency of red-light-running is still reduced."

Mogil agrees with the study, discounting the county's position. He says the shorter the yellow light, the less time drivers have to make a choice.

"Do I go? Do I stop? "We all have to make that choice every time we come to a light," he said.

He argues the county's decision to decrease yellow, is all about green.

"This is all a money grab," Mogil said.

The NBC2 Investigators found reports of cities and counties across America that decreased yellow light times when red light cameras were installed.

Dean told us that this decision had nothing to do with the cameras. It was about consistency.

On Tuesday, Collier County commissioners may vote to get rid of the red light cameras there.

Right now 85% of the revenue from red light cameras comes from issuing violations to people who don't stop on red before making a right turn.
 

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