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Florida City Caught Issuing 1645 Camera Tickets On Shortened Yellow


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Florida City Caught Issuing 1645 Camera Tickets On Shortened Yellow

In St. Petersburg, Florida, the yellow time at intersections was shortened by fractions of a second for thousands of drivers, enabling the red light camera program to generate an extra $259,910 in revenue in 13 months. To the unaided eye, the difference between a 4.3 second yellow and a 4.2 second yellow is too brief to be perceived, but it was enough to boost the number of citations issued by five percent.

. . .

St. Petersburg depends heavily on split-second timing misjudgment. The city generated 45 percent of its revenue -- $2,128,576 -- from tickets generated in a half-second or less after the light turns red. In the first three-tenths of a second, which is less than a blink of an eye, 31 percent of the city's tickets were issued.

Posted

 

Florida City Caught Issuing 1645 Camera Tickets On Shortened Yellow

In St. Petersburg, Florida, the yellow time at intersections was shortened by fractions of a second for thousands of drivers, enabling the red light camera program to generate an extra $259,910 in revenue in 13 months. To the unaided eye, the difference between a 4.3 second yellow and a 4.2 second yellow is too brief to be perceived, but it was enough to boost the number of citations issued by five percent.

. . .

St. Petersburg depends heavily on split-second timing misjudgment. The city generated 45 percent of its revenue -- $2,128,576 -- from tickets generated in a half-second or less after the light turns red. In the first three-tenths of a second, which is less than a blink of an eye, 31 percent of the city's tickets were issued.

 

Why not just increase taxes instead of issuing useless tickets which harm people's driving records. 

Posted

Because increases in municipal or county level taxes often have to be voted on, through referendum, and the residents are bound to complain.  Increases in traffic citations don't have to be voted on by anyone, and they also shift some of the burden onto out-of-towners.  St. Petersburg is next to Tampa, and must see a lot of tourists.

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