[Kiwi_ME]

San Diego, CA installed about 20 red light cameras two decades ago, mostly on left-turns equipped with a separate arrow light that were seen as having a high number of incidents. There was even a slight grace period after the red, about one or two tenths of a second, according to my friend who was a technician with the camera company.

Although the yellow period is set by speed limit per CHP standards, what was not taken into consideration was the design of the intersection. Two intersections in particular were racking up absurd numbers of tickets, thousands a month, netting the city about $200 each (and the camera company $100.) Eventually, experimentally on one the yellow was lengthened slightly and the ticket issuance immediately dropped to about 1/3! They had no choice but to leave it on the longer yellow once the difference had been documented.

On the second one, one day I watched it for about 30 minutes, clearly saw why drivers were not seeing the yellow come on, sent the city an email, and they fixed it six weeks later.

So, it's all very well saying these cameras are good "in theory," but in practice there is no guarantee that they are not simply taking advantage of the public's difficulty in navigating poorly-designed intersections. Neither the city nor the camera company have any interest in reducing their income unless there is a threat of legal action.