Florida quietly shortened yellow light standards & lengths, resulting in more red light camera ticke

Here in Calif it was found out in court that the companies that run the camera system require that the light timing be changed.(when they do not make money.) The companies tell the cities they will pull the cameras unless the changes are made.
But we have a law also in calif that all intersections with red light camera MUST be posted with signs clearly warning drivers. This slows down traffic to a point that its slower then before they added the camera.

Some cities have removed the camera because of what has come out in court and how the drivers lawyers have be able to use it against the cities.
A few of these cities have left the camera boxes and signs up just without the camera and restored the normal timing to the light.
This has worked better then having the cameras.

I don't know, but Florida has some of the longest traffic lights in the world. You sit and wait for ages for the lights to change. I could read a book at the lights. Maybe they were just trying to speed up traffic flow, after years of complaints.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


Nice find, F&S for the OP!

It never ceases to amaze me what lengths some will go to just to make an extra buck. Could some of these lawmakers have blood on their hands as well? I wonder if this change has caused any additional accidents, injuries and/or deaths?

I friggin knew it!!!

I have noticed the yellow light not lasting as long esp at one intersection. It is completely insane AND dangerous! How friggin stupid can they be?!

There are a few major intersections where this is definitely noticeable esp if you are use to traveling that way and know how long the lights usually last and let me tell you the yellow light has gotten shorter! GRRR!

Originally posted by 0001391
For goodness sakes why don't they just raise the taxes a little. This kind of thing is so sleazy..

Better to raise taxes a little than to create potential traffic accidents.

I sat at a corner in Oldsmar, Florida, just west of Tampa. In the 20 some minutes it took to eat my lunch that camera popped 8 to 10 cars. They must be making a fortune on these things.

In Colorado, I recently received an $85.00 ticket for a "rolling stop" at a red light. Basically I approached at under 10 mph, and even came to a full stop for just a moment, about 2 feet into the crosswalk. Of course, no one was coming.. it was a safe right turn, the kind people have been making their entire lives. And yet I was fined. Everyone I showed the video to (they mail you a link to watch yourself making the infraction), was incredulous I got a ticket for that.

Right hand turns are the LEAST likely to cause an accident, yet they are their highest revenue. Trying to say they are trying to avoid right-turn accidents is ridiculous. It's solely for the revenue.

And they bend the laws IN YOUR FAVOR for this "crime." Typically running a red light would be a moving violation, requiring loss of points on your license, possibly going to a class, etc. But for these devices, they magically waive the moving violation part. Why? Because you won't fight it. Further, the amount of the ticket is cleverly decided upon. You have to go to court TWICE if you want to fight it. So they make it so that the amount is high enough to make a good profit, but not so high as to make you want to lose hours of work to go to court twice to fight it. No moving violation.. loss of work hours over two days.. of course you are just going to pay the fine.

Which is exactly what they want.. and it's akin to the most sleazy scams I've seen in the past. What happens when I approach the red light now? I come to a full stop prior to the crosswalk. And as a result, I've almost been rear-ended three times - I've had people lay on their horn because of this. Because it's not NORMAL. Normal behavior for a right turn is watch the crosswalks, make sure no one is there as you approach the turn, turn carefully. That is what people expect. It does cause more accidents, because it makes people react in ways they are not used to reacting.

Red light camera tickets are an easy fail for any local gov. All I did was deny it was me in the photo. You have to go all the way but in the end they dropped my case. You just have to understand that when a photo is all the have that means their is no witness. Like when an officer issues a ticket he is a witness to the infraction. Fight the ticket and never admit that it is you behind the wheel and they'll drop the case. Also when the camera takes the photo ?
If you have a clear piece of plastic over your plate, with a MYLAR finish on it. The camera flash will obscure the plate. all they will have is a picture of someone driving a car. CLEAR PLASTIC, MYLAR FINISH.

HA! I could have sworn I noticed those lights going almost haywire roughly last year, that is the ticket flashes. It's remarkable how well you can see the flash even during the day, even here in sunny FLorida. I talked to a local CCTV professional a few years ago and he told me those flasher cams cost something to the tune of $300,000, and my jaw dropped, but he assured me that it doesn't cost us taxwise, even going as far as hinting them as a sort of good investment.

Not sure if its been mentioned but when i was recently in Thailand i was astonished and impressed to see that they have timers above all there lights which count down from when the green is going to change to red and visa versa.

Surely if accident prevention and safety was the real motive (rather than profit) implementing this would be a no brainer, i wish we also had it here in Australia.

Am I the only person that likes red light cameras? I do not like the police, and I dislike the subjectivity that comes from human interaction even less. Cameras get cops off the streets and on to real police work and it eliminates human variance from the equation. Everyone gets treated equally by the camera.

Originally posted by randyvs

All I did was deny it was me in the photo. You have to go all the way but in the end they dropped my case.

Just say it was a family member or something.

Yes, but now the gov't forces are going to check your records of tickets you have avoided prosecution for and nail your for perjury.

Since it was indeed you behind the wheel. Now you have committed two crimes.

Maybe more.

Don't sweat it though, when I used to surf and before they installed digital parking meters we used to use McDonald's straws to feed the meters. I kept a glove compartment in my VW bug full of straws.

reply to post by wantsome


I think that a paintball gun would work nicely to get your point across and would carry a lesser penalty should (Big Brother) catch you.

Originally posted by wantsome
I'm tempted to take a 22 riffle and start shooting cameras. This makes me sick

WTF is this country coming to? I'm so pissed off I can't see straight.

Try spray sting instead.

Can you say racketeering scheme. Red light cameras do not make driving any safer, especially when they make changes to the timing of the yellow lights.

Welcome to the new America!

Originally posted by Aazadan
Am I the only person that likes red light cameras? I do not like the police, and I dislike the subjectivity that comes from human interaction even less. Cameras get cops off the streets and on to real police work and it eliminates human variance from the equation. Everyone gets treated equally by the camera.

I don't like these things but, you make some good points.

You can just watch the police officer's eyes scanning your shirt, pants, shoes, haircut, accent, center console, backseats and floor of your car. You feel kinda gross after receiving your ticket. Not all act like this thank god.

Still seems like taking advantage of human nature though. You know.....NOT PERFECT!!!

People have their own definition of what is safe and acceptable driving. This will never change, therefore is an automatic exploitation of our own judgement.

And, do officers receive ticket as well or are they exempt? I swear they drive like jerks just like the rest of them.

I live in Florida and am lucky we don't have any of the redlight cameras in my county, because they are literally highway robbery, by electronics. They are a ripoff, and this issue of shortening yellow lights supports and demonstrates the ripoff. Bureaucratic greed, and yet another reason why so many people have a bit of hostility towards their government, along with anger and resentment.

They need to change how the traffic signals work here in the states. I prefer the traffic signal sequence of Malaysia. This is how it goes:

Green
Blinking Green - 5 seconds
Yellow - 4 seconds
Red

Originally posted by lostinspace
They need to change how the traffic signals work here in the states. I prefer the traffic signal sequence of Malaysia. This is how it goes:

Green
Blinking Green - 5 seconds
Yellow - 4 seconds
Red

edit on 18-5-2013 by lostinspace because: removed words

See, you have to go to a third world country to get STANDARDIZATION, which gives you an edge on in driving in never having to deal with unexpected timers.

reply to post by Aazadan


If you work for ATS or one of the other companies in the business, you positively love redlight cameras. That, because you make your living from them.

But in fact they are ripoffs. That, because it is a statistical probability that in any given instant, when the picture is taken, there will be at least one vehicle in the forbidden square.

Because that is how they work--defining a rectangle of some sort, by way of lines painted on the road, and the proper placement of cameras.

I've been briefed by 2 different police officers on how they design and pick the right intersections. If the volume is sufficient, and this was about 5 years ago, each camera can produce somewhere around $1000 a day, which ain't bad. It's kinda like shooting fish in a barrel, because in heavy traffic situations, there is almost always several vehicles in the rectangle when the light turns red.