I’m happy you live in an area where you can get from your home to such vital places as your job and the places where you shop and buy groceries, and you can have large objects like furniture and home appliances delivered to you, but many, many millions of people do not.
Much of the US is far, far, far too spread out for bicycles to be a realistic form of transit.
If it is already yellow when I get to the light, I stop. On the other hand, sometimes I am very close to the intersection when it turns yellow, and it would be unsafe to just slam on the brakes and get rear ended. Those slam on the brakes people are very dangerous.
Driving is not option for many people. Being all smug about bike commuting is great when you live close to work and other necessities. I wish I could bike or take mass transport. I live in Tokyo part of the year, and do not miss my car at all. But it is not realistic to expect everyone to bike everywhere.
Well, quite (hence the ‘if safe to do so’).
Assuming we’re talking about 30mph limits; in 3s at 30 mph you’d travel about 130ft. Stopping distance at that speed is about 100ft.
So if you go through 3s after it turns amber, either you were speeding or you could have stopped. Or you had some jerk right behind you so stopping would result in getting rear ended.
But as far as cameras go, I’d prefer people to be watching the road than their speedometer.
Self-driving cars can’t come soon enough.
Why don’t you people take out the cameras?
The Chicago yellow light problem has been publicized a couple of times before, and I make no excuses for that behavior, but one thing the city is doing right is that for busy pedestrian intersections they now turn the walk light on first for about 10 seconds before the green light goes on, at which point turning cars are the ones who have to wait because the crosswalk isn’t clear. And the city is getting a lot better about marking pedestrian crosswalks clearly and posting signage reminding drivers that they are legally required to stop if a pedestrian is waiting to cross at an intersection even if there isn’t a stop sign or light. So there’s that, at least.
I’m glad someone said it…
Yeah, no. It’s a known problem, and Chicagoans all have stories about particular intersections where they noticed all of a sudden one day the yellow light timing went from normal to what-the-heck?
It’s getting better now, because we’ve gotten used to it, but it was amazingly dangerous when the cameras first started going up because the norm in the city was for at least one car to drive through after the light turned red. Everyone knew it, so you didn’t jump to start up the instant your light turned green. There was a problem with being rear-ended in the beginning, because drivers were not expecting the car in front of them to stop the instant a yellow light hit.
What about a drone with a paintball gun, attacking from the camera’s blind angle?
(Todo: try if a friend’s drone’s avionics can handle the recoil of a paintball pistol.)
Driving is not an option for many people. I have sensory issues and can’t judge speed and acceleration and can get incapacitated by flashing lights, bright lights, high-pitched noises, and any loud noises. I would die, and quite possibly kill, if I ever tried to drive. I wish I could still take mass transit, or still bike, or still walk around without collapsing to the ground in extreme pain while crossing the street because some backup beeper or siren or flashing light has hit me.
With a camera? How do they identify the biker?
I suppose some people feel that they have no choice where to live.
I grew up in a house that was 10 miles from the city, so we used a lot of gasoline. I moved right into the center of town the first chance I got, and have stayed there since. Now I use my bike a lot. I don’t understand people who complain about having to drive a lot after choosing a house that’s 30 miles form the place that they work all their lives.
Often they’re embedded in the traffic light itself, so this is not a trivial feat and could reduce road safety by eliminating a control from the intersection.
It’s more than just some guy in LA:
http://www.motorists.org/red-light-cameras/2007Virginia.pdf
http://www.motorists.org/red-light-cameras/andreassan-study
http://www.motorists.org/red-light-cameras/aaa-michigan-study
Ooo snap you burrrrrned me!
They got me with this…I ripped up my ticket and laughed. Chicago is most corrupt city in America…but foo fighters are playing here this Friday!!!
I can’t afford housing within biking distance of where I work. 
I suppose i should just get a different job, as well.
I worked for the safety camera department in a large English city. Camera enforcement was permitted only at locations that qualified as a result of the high number of casualties. Speed enforcement only took place where serious crashes had been caused by speeding. Red light enforcement only took place where serious crashes had been caused by red light running. If the number of casualties fell below the threshold at a site, then the camera would be removed, even from sites that would be potentially lucrative. Making money had nothing to do with camera enforcement in that city. All income over expenditure was reinvested in road safety measures, not put into a city fund. I can’t speak for other cities or for other countries, but where I worked cameras were about safety, not about making money.
Well, most people don’t work at the same place for their whole lives anymore, first of all. So choosing where to settle and raise your kids (if you choose to have any), based on a job that you may not have 10 (or even 5!) years from now, may not be ideal. I’ve worked for 4 different companies over the last 15 years ranging in distance anywhere from 50 (my previous job, easily accessible by transit) to 6 (my current job, bike commutable in the summer as long as I don’t have to pick up my kids from daycare) kilometers from home. Secondly, many workplaces aren’t ideally situated when it comes to things like good schools (if one has children), crime rate, where friends and family live, cost of housing, etc etc.
