A number of Texas cities are exploiting short yellow timing at intersections, generating significant additional revenue, according to a review of Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) data by TheNewspaper. The citation issuance rate at the nine intersections with the shortest yellow timing in the state was four times greater than the ticket issuance rate at locations that offered yellow times exceeding statewide averages.
For example, among photo enforced intersections in Texas with a posted speed limit of 55 MPH, the average yellow time was 4.9 seconds. The city of El Paso, however, allowed an Australian company to set up a traffic camera at the intersection of Gateway North Boulevard and Woodrow Bean where the yellow was shorter by 0.4 seconds. This seemingly minor difference resulted in a 132 percent increase in the number of citations issued for every 10,000 vehicles entering into the intersection compared to the locations with longer yellow durations.
The difference was even more apparent among intersections with a 50 MPH speed limit where cities, on average, offered just under 4.5 seconds of yellow warning. In Coppell, the intersection of Belt Line Road and MacArthur Boulevard gave drivers a mere 3.5 seconds of yellow — more than one second shorter than average. As a result, the location has been a significant producer, generating $862,275 worth of tickets from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009. The violation rate was nine times greater than intersections with above-average yellow timing.
At 45 MPH intersections, the average red light camera location offered 4.3 seconds of yellow time. That figure was too much for Houston, which offered a mere 3.6 seconds of yellow at US 59 South and Wilcrest Drive. This intersection’s ticketing rate was 341 percent higher than the 45 MPH intersections statewide that had a longer yellow cycle.
At 40 MPH intersections, yellow times were generally set to last 4 seconds. Three camera-monitored intersections offered 0.4 seconds less of warning. In Corpus Christi, these included Greenwood and Gollihar in addition to Holly and Weber. In Houston, Fairbanks North Houston and US 290 had the shortest yellow. The average ticketing rate at these locations was 561 percent higher than locations that offered an above-average yellow time.
Most 35 MPH camera intersections offered slightly less than 3.9 seconds of yellow warning statewide. A trio of intersections had significantly shorter yellows. In Houston, Brazos and Elgin was set at just 3.2 seconds of yellow. The Dallas intersection of Beckley Avenue and Colorado Boulevard joined Cedar Hill’s West Belt Line and Clark Road in offering 3.5 second yellows. The average ticketing rate at these locations was 39 percent higher than the more generous intersections.
The connection between short yellows and increased ticketing is well known. The Texas Transportation Institute concluded in 2004 that yellows shorter by a second than the ITE recommended amount generated a 110 percent jump in citations (view report). Conversely, increasing timing one second beyond the bare minimum decreased both violations and accidents.
The Texas cities mentioned above did not necessarily shorten yellow times following the installation of red light cameras. Documents obtained in a California court trial suggest that the far more common scenario is that the private vendor in charge of the photo ticketing targeted locations that already had short yellow times and high volume. The Institute for Transportation Engineers has encouraged local engineers to shorten yellows since the early ’90s, before Texas cities began installing cameras.
The government is the enemy. The purpose of traffic lights is not to be a profit center for the municipal employee vampires.
Sounds really sad, and then people say no one is above the law.
The Institute for Transportation Engineers …..
What the hell is this and why would they have anything at all to do with setting safety times for yellow lights?
Is the idea to get cars to safely stop in all sorts of conditions, or is it to get higher failure rates?
I have often wondered WHY when driving around the country, the yellow light is never the same, which is nuts at 45 mph plus speeds.
You should know what to expect when driving.
This should be/MUST be a national standard.
This should be a “rules of the road” lesson learned during driver’s ed.
Not up to each individual city or state…or their “engineers”!
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+is+the+Institute+for+Transportation+Engineers%3F
In short, it’s an association (like ASCE or ASME) for transportation professionals/engineers.
There do exist standards that traffic engineers are to design to, just like any other engineer. However, they are not law and if politicians decide that they need more money for the coffers then the standards are not followed.
The WHY are they working for SHORTER yellows?
In my mind, longer yellows allow for safer intersections.
My real questions, however, is why isn’t this a standard nationally?
Set by engineers or who mever, it should be standardized so people KNOW what is expected and drive accordingly.
They appear to be working for shorter yellow lights, for revenue enhancement.
There’s a bunch of reasons why a single, “standardized” yellow doesn’t make sense.
Conditions vary. For instance, it takes longer to stop going downhill then it does going uphill. A “standard” yellow designed for flat, 45mph roads would be insufficient for a 45mph road with a 12% downgrade.
It also matters how large the intersecting street is. If a 45mph road intersects with a narrow street, like a big-box driveway, it doesn’t take long to get through the intersection and a shorter yellow is appropriate. On the other hand, if a 45mph road intersects with a six-lane divided arterial, it might take 3 or 4 seconds for traffic to clear – in which case both the yellow and the “all-red clearance interval” (where no traffic can go) need to be longer.
The *actual* speed of traffic – as opposed to the speed limit – is also relevant. For instance, one of the intersections mentioned in the article – Brazos/Elgin, in Houston – is in a dense, urban part of town with a lot of pedestrian traffic. The speed limit is 35mph but pedestrians and frequent buses mean that the actual traffic speed is more like 25-30. On the other hand, if you go about 20 miles west on Elgin it turns into Westheimer. The speed limit is still 35, but the traffic speed (as practiced and enforced) is more like 45-50. The yellows on outer Westheimer are much, much longer then the ones on Elgin in the city.
None of this should be construed as a defense of overly-short yellow light times. If lengthening a substantard yellow light time can significantly reduce violation and crash rates, it should be the first option considered – before cameras.
But intersection design is a very detailed, context-sensitive discipline, and attempting to impose a simple “standard” signal timing on the entire country would create many more problems than it would solve. Of course, if we installed more roundabouts we wouldn’t have this problem at all. Roundabouts have proven to be much safer than signalized intersections, they move traffic more efficienctly, and as far as I know, no vendor has yet come up with a “yield sign camera” that tickets you for failure-to-yield to circulating traffic. Roundabouts are a win-win from both a public policy and an auto enthusiast’s perspective.
Appreciate the rational response to this so emotionally charged issue — bravo!
Roundabouts are a great solution for what they do well. They’re not nearly as good a solution for things they don’t handle well. I do think they should occupy a bigger space between stop-sign controlled intersections and signalized intersections, but on the upper end of signalized intersections, a roundabout just can’t handle that much volume.
But none of that changes the disgust I feel at local authorities skimping on yellow lights to boost revenues. They’re intentionally putting people at risk to boost their wallets.