Amber is the color of illegal revenue.

Via Megan McArdle. From Here.

Six U.S. cities have been found guilty of shortening the amber cycles below what is allowed by law on intersections equipped with cameras meant to catch red-light runners. The local governments in question have ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration, and collect the profits instead.

I hate the idea of police-by-camera. I think that police stations issue too many speeding tickets as it is, they aren’t trying to promote public safety, but instead they are just trying to raise revenue. I’m two for two on getting tickets while driving through middle-of-nowhere Texas (91 in an 80). The car was under control, there was no one else on the road (except for, of course, all of the cops driving 2008 V8 Mustangs), so how is it in the public interest to give me a ticket?

Radar camera’s are just ways for the city to raise absurd amounts of revenue by essentially creating a “driving-tax” which no one votes on. I feel considerably less-safe driving through intersections equipped with the radar cameras because cars abruptly slow-down when they get in range, causing traffic to back up and, I’m sure, extra accidents.