![]() In fact, as The Newspaper reports, it actually pretended it never happened. The city refused to discuss its traffic light timing alterations. Shortening it back to 4.0 seconds sent violations skyward by 883 percent.įor undisclosed reasons, the city switched the yellow lights back to 4.7 seconds in November. At Blacow Road, the change to a 4.7 second yellow slashed violations by 68 percent. Increasing the yellow time by 0.7 seconds in 2015 slashed the number of tickets issued at Farwell Drive by 77 percent, and shortening it back to 4.0 seconds in February 2016 caused a 445 percent spike in ticketing. It switched to a more permissive traffic survey - one that allowed it to take 0.7 seconds away from the yellow light, and add millions of dollars to its bottom line. Since CalTrans’s regulations weren’t helping the city (or Redflex) make the most of this revenue stream, the city chose to alter the terms of the deal. It originally had them set at 4.7 seconds, something it couldn’t alter because of CalTrans regulations that required “realistic speed limit estimates” when adjusting yellow light timing. It shaved 0.7 seconds off the timer at a pair of intersections. Since that point, Fremont has continued to “experiment” with its yellow light times. ![]() In fact, the city formally recognized that the cameras by themselves did nothing to reduce violations. The number of monthly tickets issued at the location immediately plunged and stayed down by an average of 77 percent, while in the rest of the city the average number of tickets issued did not change.īut safety! someone exclaims (possibly red light camera provider Redflex and a handful of legislators): CalTrans agreed with Jones that the timing was too short and ordered Fremont’s engineers to boost the yellow from 4.3 to 5.0 seconds. In 2010, a local activist, the late Roger Jones, asked the CalTrans to investigate the signal timing at the intersection of Mission Boulevard and Mohave Drive. But one can’t help but notice the dramatic drop in citations that follows any lengthening of yellow lights.Ĭity leaders are fully aware of the impact that a small change in yellow time can have on citations. The Newspaper reports Fremont, California officials are mucking about with yellow light timing, supposedly to adhere to local regulations. If your city has red light cameras installed, the length of time that yellow lights stay yellow largely depends on how much revenue the cameras are generating, rather than how much safer the intersection is.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |