Isn’t the problem that many municipalities give different orange light times for signaled intersections for those with and without cameras, so causing more accidents (people hard braking unnecessarily), and then entrapping people (do you potentially cause a crash by hard braking or risk a ticket because this particular light has a camera timed to half the normal orange light timing?)
If a municipality ever gives shorter times for lights with cameras the answer is very clear: it is about revenue not safety. There is no safety related justification that would ever say “the timing of a light is tied to income production”
There should be a national standard yellow light times, perhaps scaled based on the speed limit of the area. That way folks will develop an intuition that serves them everywhere. Ideally with a countdown signal like making the light smaller or a number of seconds.
It's entrapment playing games with the timing to get more money from people, cameras or not.
There are already documented/recommended timings for lights.
The whole point that people are bringing up is that there are a large number of documented examples of municipalities explicitly giving intersections with red light cameras significantly lower orange light times than all surrounding non-camera’s intersections. More over these municipalities have a documented increase in collisions, but collisions don’t cost the municipality anything, they just add a greater tax (through increased premiums) to all the people living in them.
I believe the correct course of action is cameras - red light, and speed, applied universally - however in the US where blatant corruption is legal it’s not reasonable to say “don’t break the law if you don’t want fines”, especially when again the whole reason this is up for debate is that timings for red light cameras are significantly shorter than non camera intersections. Eg what is legal in one intersection is illegal on the next and your only way to know is whether you get a fine in the mail.
This all ignores the part where fine based penalties for a crime simply renders crime legal for the wealthy. Again, if the intent is to ensure safety there would not be a subset of society for whom the law functionally does not apply, but the intent is very clearly revenue.
If a municipality ever gives shorter times for lights with cameras the answer is very clear: it is about revenue not safety. There is no safety related justification that would ever say “the timing of a light is tied to income production”