SALT LAKE CITY — Utah traffic engineers say the number of collisions involving motorists ignoring traffic commands almost doubled in 2007.
Drivers caused more than 2,000 accidents by running red lights or stop signs or by ignoring yield signs.
Salt Lake City Police Sgt. Joe Cyr said it takes him just five minutes of observation at an intersection to see a motorist running a red light.
Now, state engineers are installing more signs warning drivers of approaching traffic lights and rethinking how long traffic lights should stay yellow before turning red — which in Utah is about four seconds.
The timing of a yellow light can be adjusted within three to six seconds depending on traffic speed and other factors, including the incline of a road.
It’s a crucial issue that can affect driver behavior, although it’s not always clear whether a longer or shorter yellow light leads to more or fewer drivers running a red light.
One Utah transplant, Dani Reesor, 22, said yellow stoplights seem longer in Utah than where she came from in California. Reesor said she finds herself going through more yellow lights as a result — and also because Utah doesn’t have photo-enforced stoplights.
Orem transportation engineer Paul Goodrich said he thinks the Legislature should reverse a decision in 2002 that prohibited the state or municipalities from monitoring intersections with cameras to nab violators.
Goodrich said a standing joke in Utah is that “green means go, red means stop and yellow means you better hurry.”
