Camera Light Ticket Nonsense...... please read

And I'm hoping that you have learned something about looking behind laws, traffic and otherwise, for their reason.
"Because it's the law" isn't a reason, it's an excuse, if that law's primary effect is to create a "crime" that can be monetized. In the case of red light cameras, the initial purpose (and the sales pitch to this day) was to make intersections safer by discouraging the rolling stops I see regularly from more police cruisers than the general population (which outnumber police vehicles by a large multiple), and folks "beating the red", an offense, again, that I see regularly by certain cars lighting up some rooftop red & blue lights just to pass through an empty intersection (often slowing only slightly). If a vehicle stops well-before entering the intersection, that intended/desired safety result has been met; the problem is that it produces no revenue. THIS is the biggest issue for people - that it has been abused by design. The specific line I've referred to is 14.5 feet from the intersection.

Makes those who are the badged and empowered antithesis of "Ignorance of the law" even less respectable in the area of selective enforcement, especially when justified by the technical claim of "It's the law", ignoring the actual reason(s) for any and all laws - for the public good. Please keep this in mind, should you ever manage to get hired-on as an officer somewhere.

And don't hold ownership of a Ferrari against those who probably worked harder/smarter to go beyond the norm in order afford such a car. You're on a forum mostly populated by folks who didn't surrender to "knowing their place", but took that as a challenge to go further.
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We're trying. We really are, but for some reason, leaders want the associated reven-, oops, "safety" that such schemes bring-in to pay for their legacies.

 

Standard rule of thumb for yellow light length is 1 second of yellow for every 10 mph of posted limit. 40 mph limit = 4 second yellow. It gets way more complicated than that because of site distances, road grades etc, but 1 sec per 10 mph is close- see http://www.dot.state.fl.us/trafficoperations/Doc_Library/PDF/3%206r6_10.pdf

If you really want to get all into the traffic engineering see:
2009 MUTCD with Revisions 1 and 2, May 2012 - Knowledge - FHWA MUTCD

When jurisdictions that put in red light cameras want to make them pay out, they sometimes shorten the yellow cycle, which will catch people out on running the light. If the yellow is significantly under timed for the speed of the approach road, you should have a case. The other reason to pass through, is if you have someone following closely behind and you have made the judgement that they would not stop (looking at their phone, etc.) The court would possibly dismiss a red light violation of you could show a vehicle close behind. Better to run the yellow, then stop for it and get blasted from behind. Actually it is one of the reasons some communities are eliminating the red light camera. The get lots more rear end collisions at red light camera intersections because of people blasting their brakes to stop in time. Unintended consequences.

 

Halfway to ridding ourselves of these things

Senate votes to ban use of red-light cameras by Texas cities | | Dallas Morning News

 

Great news.

 

“The only rationale explanation to continue use of these is the money they generate for municipalities and private corporations” that operate the cameras.

The North Texas senator said the red-light camera programs “trample on constitutional rights” while doing little to make roads safer across the state."

Amen!

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