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Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

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Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#12
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How goes giving someone less time to stop before someone else goes not decrease safety? Why not shorten the yellow time to zero?

If they decrease the yellow time and increase the all-red time the same amount, people have exactly the same amount of time to stop.

Just so I understand, you are under the impression that 0 seconds is the appropriate time required to stop, which would obviously be the case if your car was moving legally at the speed limit at the edge of the road when the green light immediately changed to a red light.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#13

If they increased the "all-red" time to match, then good for Florida. They've increased their revenues, their roads are safer, and those who are running yellows are getting what they deserve. Running yellows is illegal and far too common. If they didn't increase the all-red time they are making the roads more dangerous. People get accustomed to the length of the yellow & all-red time. But if the total doesn't change,…

Driving through a yellow light is not illegal.

Also, is shortening yellows actually making the roads safer or is it just a way to increase revenues? Seems like one likely cause of shorter yellow lights is that more people make harder stops at intersections, result in more rear-end collisions.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#14
This is a terrible abuse that pisses me off.

But it still struck me as funny how many of us HN's (self included) jumped to the defense of Weebly for "optimizing revenue" in the "When a Startup Sends a Passive-Aggressive Email Every Day " story that was trending earlier today (1)

If Florida's red-light system was my start-up I'd be pretty damned pleased with myself for figuring out how to drive more revenue with "no cost".

(1) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5704860

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#15

If they increased the "all-red" time to match, then good for Florida. They've increased their revenues, their roads are safer, and those who are running yellows are getting what they deserve. Running yellows is illegal and far too common. If they didn't increase the all-red time they are making the roads more dangerous. People get accustomed to the length of the yellow & all-red time. But if the total doesn't change,…

Lengthening the yellow light duration reduces the number of red light violations: http://www.motorists.org/red-light-cameras/timing-myths

Even worse: Red light cameras make intersections LESS safe by INCREASING accident rates:

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/18/1835.asp

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/red-light_cameras_l...

This only makes sense since you're removing decision power from the person most qualified to make the decision (whether it's safe to stop or not).

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#16

If they increased the "all-red" time to match, then good for Florida. They've increased their revenues, their roads are safer, and those who are running yellows are getting what they deserve. Running yellows is illegal and far too common. If they didn't increase the all-red time they are making the roads more dangerous. People get accustomed to the length of the yellow & all-red time. But if the total doesn't change,…

Driving through a yellow light is not illegal. Also, is shortening yellows actually making the roads safer or is it just a way to increase revenues? Seems like one likely cause of shorter yellow lights is that more people make harder stops at intersections, result in more rear-end collisions.

More rear-end collisions also leads to more tickets and more revenue...

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#17
post #14

This is a terrible abuse that pisses me off. But it still struck me as funny how many of us HN's (self included) jumped to the defense of Weebly for "optimizing revenue" in the "When a Startup Sends a Passive-Aggressive Email Every Day " story that was trending earlier today (1) If Florida's red-light system was my start-up I'd be pretty damned pleased with myself for figuring out how to drive more revenue with "no c…

Slight difference, of many: Spams aren't causing traffic accidents.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#18
post #14

This is a terrible abuse that pisses me off. But it still struck me as funny how many of us HN's (self included) jumped to the defense of Weebly for "optimizing revenue" in the "When a Startup Sends a Passive-Aggressive Email Every Day " story that was trending earlier today (1) If Florida's red-light system was my start-up I'd be pretty damned pleased with myself for figuring out how to drive more revenue with "no c…

If the purpose of a government was to make money, this might be more acceptable.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#19

If they increased the "all-red" time to match, then good for Florida. They've increased their revenues, their roads are safer, and those who are running yellows are getting what they deserve. Running yellows is illegal and far too common. If they didn't increase the all-red time they are making the roads more dangerous. People get accustomed to the length of the yellow & all-red time. But if the total doesn't change,…

Driving through a yellow light is not illegal. Also, is shortening yellows actually making the roads safer or is it just a way to increase revenues? Seems like one likely cause of shorter yellow lights is that more people make harder stops at intersections, result in more rear-end collisions.

In many places, such as where I grew up in Ohio, the language regarding yellow lights is to "clear the intersection", and that if you are able to stop, you must not enter an intersection when presented with a yellow light. In other words, treat it like a red light, unless you absolutely cannot stop.

Of course in practice most folks will go for it if they think they can clear the intersection in time. Some may even accelerate, and having excessively long yellow lights may encourage that behavior even more, despite it being illegal.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#20
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How goes giving someone less time to stop before someone else goes not decrease safety? Why not shorten the yellow time to zero?

If the "all-red" time is increased to compensate, then the time before someone else goes does not decrease. However, if they are just decreasing the yellow time, and keeping the all-red the same(making the total time from yellow to opposite direction green shorter) then I agree that safety has been lowered to increase profits, and this would be super un-ethical.

Even if you increase the all-red time, shorter yellows are still more dangerous. For example if you drop the yellow time too low for the legal speed limit of the road then you will create a situation where people have to start emergency braking in order to avoid running the red. This situation is unsafe for obvious reasons.
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