Red-light running is epidemic in the U.S., and the state Department of Transportation is leading a campaign _ with the Florida Highway Patrol _ to cut it way back. Enforcement works, but often only for the duration of the enforcement campaign, and as its memory lingers for those ticketed or witnesses to the ticketing.

    Florida ranks seventh in the nation for traffic deaths caused by red light runners, and fatal vehicle crashes at traffic signals increased 19 percent last year, outpacing the rise of fatal crashes by all other causes _ according to stats from the state’s “Stop Red Light Running’’ campaign.

    The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety also reports that disregarding red lilghts and other traffic control devices is the leading cause of urban crashes—causing 22 percent of them. The economic impact is estimated at $7 billion a year in medical costs, time off work, insurance rate increases and property damage.

  Worse, nationwide more than 900 people die and 200,000 are injured in crashes involving red light-running. About half the deaths are pedestrians and occupants of other vehicles hit by red light-runners.

  Many jurisdictions around the country are fighting back, often with red light cameras that lead to tickets based solely on the cameras’ photograph. Florida is not one of them, begging off that bandwagon on the grounds that tickets should go to the operator of the vehicle, not to the owner, and the cameras cannot make a positive I.D.  Yet.

  OK, we all know that we shouldn’t do it. In fact, the yellow light means stop, and only cars alread moving through the intersection should continue through. We have many excuses, many of them some version of “I was in a hurry, and ...’‘

  A report from no less than the office of the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives—which seems to be part of a legislative effort to curb the proliferation of the red light cameras—made an interesting discovery, after first noting that some jurisdictions purposely shorten the times of the yellow lights to increase violations— and revenue.

  The discovery? That LENGTHENING the duration of yellow lights reduces accidents at intersections, quite sharply.
   
  Here’s a part of the executive summary. Below is the URL for the full, 29-page report:

  The Red Light Running Crisis: Is it Intentional?

  There’s a hidden tax being levied on motorists today. In theory, this tax is only levied on
those who violate the law and put others in danger. But the reality is that the game has been
rigged. And we’re all at risk.
We are told to accept the idea that our laws should be administered by machines—not
human beings—because it is a matter of safety. We must accept this expansion of government
and this Orwellian threat to our privacy because cameras are the solution to the so-called red
light running crisis.
This is a federal issue, not just a local one. The federal government is promoting and
offering funding for this “solution”, because the safety benefits are supposed to be indisputable.
After all, who’s going to object? Nobody likes a red light runner. They endanger
themselves and others. They must be penalized.
But why have so many people become wanton red light runners all of a sudden? The
answer seems to be that changes made to accommodate camera enforcement have produced
yellow light times that, in many cases, are shortened to the point that they are inadequate. And
when people come upon an intersection with inadequate yellow time, they are faced with the
choice either of stopping abruptly on yellow (risking a rear end accident) or accelerating. The
options for those confronting such circumstances are limited and unsafe. But each time a driver
faces this dilemma, government increases its odds for hitting the jackpot.
This report suggests there is something that can be done to address this hazard. It cites
examples of problem intersections where yellow times have been raised by about 30 percent and
the number of people entering on red fell dramatically. It cites, in addition, controlled scientific
studies that confirm the hypothesis that longer yellows are better. The following reductions in
red light entries are documented:
Mesa, Arizona 73%
Georgia 75%
Virginia site 1 79%
Virginia site 2 77%
Virginia site 3 Problem “virtually eliminated”
Maryland Problem “virtually eliminated”
It is no coincidence that each of the “problem” intersections mentioned above happened
to have yellow times that fell short by about 30 percent….

see: rhttp://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/finalreport.pdf.

More food for thought, and from Washington.