Yellow Traffic Lights Could Get Longer Worldwide Because of One Guy Mad Over a Ticket
Can you believe that ONE traffic ticket could end up changing the world??!
Mats Jarlstrom of Oregon that was furious when his wife got a red light camera ticket back in 2013. She got the ticket 0.12 seconds after the light switched from yellow to red, and he believed she didn’t have enough time to make it through the intersection.
Mats is originally from Sweden, and he’d studied electrical engineering there, so he went to the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying to argue that yellow lights should be extended. They ignored him, and fined him $500 for not having a professional engineering license. Oops. That put a stop to his quest.
However, a federal judge overturned that fine earlier this year, so the mission was back on. And now Mats has taken his proposal to the Institute of Transportation Engineers, which sets the official traffic light guidelines for 90 countries.
He is proposing that, based on modern roads and cars, it makes sense to extend yellow lights from 3.2 seconds to 4.5 seconds. And if they accept his proposal next year, yellow lights around the world could get longer.
This seems pretty silly to me, but to each their own I guess.
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