Sorry, Budd - it happened. See these articles:
"A 2001 report entitled ?The Red Light Running Crisis: Is it Intentional?? commissioned by U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and researched by the non-partisan General Accounting Office of Congress, found some startling information about these camera enforcement programs.
"From Oregon to California to Arizona, to right here in Virginia, traffic engineers have shortened yellow light times to catch motorists going through red lights.
"You think I?m hung up on conspiracy theories? Think again. Reports abound of local governments tampering with light timing to increase local government revenues by handing out more traffic fines.
"Two attorneys representing motorists in San Diego forced the release of confidential documents describing that safety was never the primary consideration of the red light camera program in that city. None of the cameras were placed at any of San Diego's 10 most dangerous intersections. Instead, the documents showed that the camera operators purposefully sought out mistimed intersections as locations for red light cameras to trap motorists and net a new source of revenue for city hall. A single camera brought San Diego $6.8 million in just 18 months in 2000-2001.
"In Beaverton, Ore., TV reporters timed the length of the yellow lights at intersections without camera enforcement and found it to be a consistent four seconds. When they timed the lights with camera enforcement, yellow only lasted for three seconds ? across the city.
"Yellow signal time at intersections is directly related to red-light running: When the yellow light is short, more people run the red light. Inadequate yellow times cause motorists approaching an intersection to come to a sudden stop, or force them to enter the intersection on a red light. In Virginia, a study conducted in 2001 in Fairfax County found that simply increasing the yellow time at a given intersection by 1.5 seconds reduced red-light infractions by 96 percent, which was significantly better than the drop in infractions resulting from the red light cameras they had installed."
"In Mesa, Ariz., after the city increased yellow times at its intersections in response to motorist complaints, red-light runners dropped by 70 percent. The camera program turned into a big money loser, because it cost more to run the cameras than the ticket revenues they were generating."
From the second article:
"'One of the most troubling aspects about the use of red-light cameras is that they turn a key function of law enforcement over to private contractors', said Marshall Hurley, a Greensboro, N.C., lawyer.
"'Red-light surveillance cameras combine the worst traits of government arrogance and corporate greed,' he told subcommittee members. In many localities, 'the camera schemes are based on the concept of a government kickback' in which companies that supply and operate the cameras collect a portion of the fines.
"In North Carolina, it's $35 of each $50 fine. In San Diego, it's $70 of each $271 fine. 'Both the government and its contractors have an immense financial stake in the violation of traffic laws,' he said.
"In San Diego, motorists who have been ticketed have filed a class-action suit contending that contractor Lockheed Martin IMS tinkered with sensors and selected intersections with short yellow lights to maximize the number of motorists who could be ticketed.
"Former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock, now a radio talk show host, denounces red-light cameras for increasing the number of rear-end collisions as motorists make sudden stops for short yellow lights. Lengthening the time for yellow lights would cut red-light running as effectively as installing red-light cameras, Hedgecock contends, adding that a study by the city of Tempe, Ariz., reached the same conclusion. "'But here's the rub.' Tempe also hired Lockheed Martin IMS to install red-light cameras at a number of intersections, and 'the Lockheed Martin contract prevents the city of Tempe from extending the yellow light interval where Lockheed's cameras are in place,' he said."
A paragraph that I posted to that thread in '04: "I guess my take on the whole thing, since people's lives are at stake from red-light runners, is that camera ticketing can be used, but *NOT* until the legal system is set up to pay a *hefty* bounty to citizens who accurately report a short-cycled yellow, and the municipalities are forced to: (1) pay the bounty without delay and without challenge when the report is certified to be correct (false reporting would be met with a stiff fine to counter people who just want to put a roadblock in the way of the legal system), and (2) Shut down the camera until the intersection's timing system is subsequently *certified* to be within the legal parameters (which would be somethng like 4 seconds for a typical intersection). "
Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')