Short Yellow Lights Are Dangerous
In its short history, the National Motorists Association has taken on laser gun accuracy, right to a jury trial for traffic offenses, visual estimation, and vehicle seizure laws.
But now we're tackling our biggest challenge yet: the ticket camera industry and its unabashed exploitation of short yellow light times.
The positive effect of increasing the yellow light time at a troublesome intersection (an increase of one second can reduce violations by 50%) is undisputed by even the most zealous ticket camera supporters.
Nevertheless...
Several cities have been caught shortening yellow light times to increase ticket camera profits and we think there are more yet to be discovered.
Red-light cameras can only remain profitable at poorly engineered interesections. Once an intersection is fixed, the money dries up quickly. And once the money is gone, the cameras disappear.
We've already seen it happen in North Carolina. After the Courts forced cities to give their profits to local schools, the majority of the ticket camera programs in the state shut down.
Our goal is to properly time the lights in the 300+ U.S. cities that operate red-light cameras, and by doing so, eliminate this scourge in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
We also hope the project results in legislation mandating proper yellow light times. Currently, such legislation is largely non-existent.