Virginia: Engineer Challenges Short Yellow, Right Turn Trap
 16 years
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A traffic engineer with the National Motorists Association is taking on what he calls a dangerous intersection in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Engineer J.J. Bahen Jr. began investigating one particular location in response to an NMA member who raised questions about a citation sent to her in the mail by Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia.
Virginia Beach depends on these right turn violations 82.3 percent of the photo ticket revenue generated citywide. The Great Neck location alone allowed Redflex to mail out 24,400 citations since June 1, 2009, even though the intersection has no documented history of crashes caused by turning right on red. A federal report shows such turns are rarely dangerous (view report). In addition to the turning problem, Bahen said straight-through traffic is also being shortchanged with a yellow time of just 4.3 seconds.
"The recommended methodology of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) is that yellow intervals be based on the 85th percentile speed of free-flowing vehicles, not the posted limit," wrote Bahen, an ITE member. "The difference between the two is generally 7 MPH. Virginia law requires that the ITE methodology be used. Therefore, an interval of 4.8 seconds is required. Camera enforcement of short yellow intervals always increases crash rates."
thx for that, I have been
thx for that, I have been under the impression it was 4 sec for yellow. I guess that comes from a violation I had a VERY long time ago. I haven't kept up with the changes.
reccomended vs, required
Sadly, the ITE reccomendation isn't a requirement and Mr. Bahen's interpretation as reported is a selective reading of the docuentation.ITEsays either the 85th percentile speed can be used or the posted speed. What's not provided in this report by The Newspaper.com is the posted speed limit and what Virginia Beach's traffic law states. The 4.3 second timing suggests a speed of approximately 35 MPH which could be the maximum speed allowdby ordinance. The 8th percentile speed should be used in this case as an argument bfore the city's governing body for a review of the speed limits rather than an attempt to force the change at a single intersection.
If Mr.Bahen is a registered Traffic Operations Engineer, perhaps he should spend the effort to analyze the entire cooridor and make a recommendation based on the results of that study. Support for his effort shoukd the city not accept the study could then be sought from members of the local media.
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