Lockheed Martin puts in all those fancy $100,000 signal lights and splits
> the revenue flow from all the tickets.
>
> These signal lights are supposed to cut down on violators, but in
> actuality, they create violations. This is because the yellow light
> interval is short-cycled on purpose to increase the number of red light
> runners. Since the advent of these automated ticket generators, the > yellow
> light interval has been dangerously shortened.
>
> As the yellow is shortened, the "go", "no go", decision is narrowed.
> Drivers are supposed to treat the yellow as a green if they are too close
> to the intersection to make a normal stop. They are supposed to treat the
> yellow as a red if they can make a normal stop. If the yellow is > shortened
> enough, the yellow will trap every driver into either entering an
> intersection on a red and being ticketed or making a panic stop and risk
> being rear-ended. For that reason, there are tables and recommendations
> for timing the yellow.
>
> Ideally, the yellow should be 3 seconds minimum for a posted 30 mph zone,
> with an additional 1 second for every 10 mph. Say you have a posted 50 > mph
> zone. The yellow should be 5 seconds. With a red clearance interval of
> one second, whereby the intersection is blocked by red signals in both
> directions, the total safety clearance time is 6 seconds. This describes > a
> safetly timed intersection. Traffic experts will attest to this formula. >
> Lockheed Martin recklessly disregards these safe times and routinely times
> their signals for a 3 second yellow on 50 mph roads. You will typically
> see skid marks at these intersections, attesting to their danger caused by
> drivers making panic stops to avoid being nailed by a red. It is not to
> the pecuniary advantage of Lockheed Martin to time intersections according
> to a safe formula because then, only deliberate red light runners will be
> ticketed. To make their venture into the cash cow it is, they time the
> lights to trap careful drivers who follow the rules of the road, but are
> victimized by slowing reflexes or even worse, the laws of physics. Even
> worse then having to pay unjust tickets, accidents have been caused by
> these very lights promoted in the name of reducing just such accidents. >
> If you are involved in an accident at one of these short cycled
> intersections, bring Lockheed Martin into court and make them face the
> music. The net has a lot of data to support the assertions made above. > If
> you are ticketed, you need to also supeona Lockheed Martin officials and
> any officials that made the decision to set you up for an unwarranted
> ticket. Any reasonable judge should dismiss your case if you can show
> deliberate disregard for timing standards.
>
> Class action lawyers might give this some consideration. Possibly > hundreds
> of thousands of tickets could be reversed with all such fines returned
> along with claims filed for consequential damage such as jacked-up > insurance rates.
Lockheed Martin puts in ALL those 100K $ signals? I GUESS you mean the ones with the cameras on them? I see them go up in my city pretty regular now. I always see a CITY truck and workers doing it. If the city buys this crap from Lockheed Martin that just goes to show you how stupid and the "money is no object" attitude government has. I mean really, it takes a company like Lockheed Martin to develope and sell this??? And it takes small goverments to buy it? Morons.....Anyway, I like them....I am getting sick and tired of having to drive defensively just to get through a GREEN light. I was on my motorcycle one day and a guy in a motorhome tryed to kill me and all I was doing was leaving the intersection when the light turned green. The dumbass didnt even slow down. I was so surprized I looked twice at the light to see if *I* ran it red....The others (and him) were turning in front of me on the green, there was a big gap in vehicles, then BAM, theres a motorhome turning right in front of me running the red light big time.....Like I said, I like the cameras......it makes those morons stop at a red light for once, and not just gun it when its good and yellow.