The lights all have shorter yellow. Way too many tickets because of bullshit timing.

I am sick of the cameras. I want all of them gone. And they'll never put a timer up because it's not about safety. As you said, it's about revenue

Here's an effective method of eliminating many red light runners, lengthen yellow light times and, for dang sakes, time the lights so you can make it from one end of town to the other without the stop and go lurch.

Most of my 50 years of driving yellow meant caution and you should stop because the next light will be red.
But now yellow seems to mean hurry up and get through the intersection. That is why there are rear end accidents.
If I slow down and stop at a yellow light I sometimes am almost hit by the driver behind me wanting to get through the light.
And I have seen more and more people if they think they can make it, will go through red lights and do not stop at stop signs if it means they might have to yield to the car that has the right of way.
Drivers are getting more reckless every year.
Keep the cameras and let people pay for their recklessness that endangers other lives.

In St. Petersburg, FL, the people brought a case against the city, and the company they had a 'con-tract' with because it was found that when they installed the cameras, they SHORTENED the YELLOW LIGHTS! Yes, talk about your money maker.

http://www.wfla.com/story/24455971/yellow-light-length-controversy


Safety issue is one thing, but the profits make them 'gotcha machines'. So this is not an unreasonable request for countdowns, for starters.

In St. Petersburg, FL, they also removed them because of the cost to operate and no money was really made.
http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-pinellas/last-day-for-red-light-cameras-in-st-petersburg

There are intersections with 15 cars waiting to make a left turn (with no arrow). Oncoming traffic means that at most one, or perhaps two cars will make it through, and then only on the yellow to red. The other 13 cars have to wait 4 more light cycles before getting through, by which time 15 more cars are backed up.

I say, let's put in left-turn arrows at all these difficult intersections ... and there are many, many of them ... and then we can discuss red-light cameras.

But the real reason to get rid of the cameras is that there really is no due process with them. Cameras do lie. (Believe me: my husband had a red-light ticket reversed when he showed the video to the judge, who agreed that the state had not brought proper evidence).

This sucks an awful lot of money out of the local economy, which is very short sighted.

Last summer, I received a red-light camera ticket initiated in Hillside, IL. The fine was $100 and the ticket listed a URL where you can enter your ticket code and watch a video loop of the infraction. I watched it several times and could see that I HAD completely stopped prior to making a right turn on red, so I opted to go to court and fight it.

I was astonished to find around 150 people in the makeshift traffic courtroom/great-hall fighting their tickets as well, so I awaited my turn. Each person who approached stood across the table from 2 officers and a judge. There were computer monitors facing both sides, so judge and accused could both watch the video and discuss. The average conversation with the judge was around 60-seconds and most people had never viewed the video prior to the court date, so the conversation was very brief "pay the fine, it won't appear on your record".

Some of the longer conversations were angry rants about the intersection, being forced to run the red due to approaching emergency vehicles, begin part of a funeral procession, and lots of other explanations. When my name was called, I approached and said only "good afternoon". We watched the video loop, he winked at me and called the next case.

I appreciated saving the $100, but was miffed that there are likely a great number who can't take time to fight these tickets and either pay of let them go to collection (where it can get much nastier). I suppose the people who review the videos prior to issuing the ticket must enforce a bit too tightly in hopes their business model will result in undeserved revenue.

In sum, I dislike these cams as they don't make things safer, can make things worse by causing rear-end collisions, and take a lot of money out of circulation in the area.