Cities Shortening Yellow Light Duration for Profit

A lot of cities in the United States are strapped for cash but a handful of them are taking extreme measures of raising funds by taking these steps:

1. Install red-light cameras
2. Shorten the yellow light duration
3. Profit!

Here is an article at the National Motorist Association about 6 cities that were caught shortening yellow traffic light durations for profit. Take Chattanooga, Tennessee, for example:

The city of Chattanooga was forced refund $8800 in red light cameras tickets issued to motorists trapped by an illegally short yellow time. The refund only occurred after a motorist challenged his citation by insisting that the yellow light time of 3.0 seconds was too short. LaserCraft, the private vendor that runs the camera program in return for a cut of the profits, provided the judge with a computer database that asserted the yellow was 3.8 seconds at that location.

The judge then personally checked the intersection in question was timed at three seconds while other nearby locations had about four seconds of yellow warning. City traffic engineer John Van Winkle told Bean that “a mix up with the turn arrow” was responsible and that the bare minimum for the light should be 3.9 seconds. (Source)