If you're a resident of Chicago, boy, you're not going to like hearing about this.
According to reports, the city has been playing around with how quick it's light system goes from yellow to red. Of course, the faster the change the more likely people are going to either get into accidents because they slam on their brakes, or get caught in the middle of intersection and receive a nice ticket from the city.
The industry standard is typically between three and six seconds for a yellow light. Chicago has chosen three, because it's able to drum up revenue. There's just one thing: some areas of the city are actually under the standard as the lights are switching in 2.9 seconds. So far 77,000 tickets have been generated at intersections where 2.9 seconds is how long the yellow holds for — that's $8 million in fines.
Something tells me that taxpayers who were fined won't receive a reimbursement as the city is, of course, pointing the finger at the city's power grid and infrastructure for the fault.
Perhaps Chicago's slogan should be "The Crooked City," instead of "The Windy City." Just saying...
...Since November 2003, Chicago has issued five million red light camera citations and generated more than $520 million in revenue.
Now comes word that even more money has been generated by a slight but significant alteration in the time it takes a yellow light to turn red.
Chicago has issued 77,000 tickets this year at intersections where the yellow light lasts 2.9 seconds instead of the standard minimum of 3 seconds flat.
That's almost $8 million in fines...
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