Florida Makes Yellow Lights Shorter: Does this Mean More Traffic Tickets?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Hey, folks, I want to introduce you to attorney Robert Hidock, and he's on the air with us now. He is from the Ticks Team in Orlando. Now, Robert, I want to ask you this, we posted about you being on the show today on our Facebook page, Olsen on Law Radio Show, and we got some great comments and questions but one of the comments was is that cities have lowered the yellow light time sequence. They've made it shorter to generate more revenue. Have cities made the yellow light time sequence shorter that you know of?

Robert: They have. The way the law previously was written, they took the average speed on the road, so not necessarily the speed limit, and there's a formula that calculates the length of the yellow light based on the average speed on the road. Since the red light cameras have come into existence, they don't use the average speed on the road, they use the speed limit which effectively shortens the length of the yellow light. And if you look at most red light camera tickets, most people get them from a tenth of a second to four tenths of a second once the light turns red.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Wow, that's short.

Robert: But for the new law in changing it from actual speed to speed limit, those people never would have got red light camera ticket at all.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Great. Okay.

Robert: It still would have been a yellow light.

Attorney Tom Olsen: On the phone with me is attorney Robert Hidock and he is a lawyer here in Orlando who does traffic tickets.