Are the yellow lights in traffic signals briefer than they used to be?
Dear Cecil:
Are the yellow lights on the traffic intersections getting briefer, or am I just getting slower as I inch toward 30? Several times lately I've been nearly run over while crossing the street. I tried watching carefully and found that if the light turned yellow when I was exactly in the middle of the street I could just barely get to the other side. Presumably, then, if it turns yellow just after you've stepped off the curb, you could get yourself killed. Was there a change?
Dear C.:
Light sequencing is carefully calculated according to a formula found in the Traffic Engineer's Handbook, which is accepted as a national standard. The formula takes into account the width of the intersection and the speed of traffic, but not the speed of pedestrians--the yellow light, you see, is for cars, not people. If you're on foot you're supposed to be watching the "Walk/Don't Walk" signals, which do take pedestrians into account: about six feet per second in most neighborhoods, four feet per second in neighborhoods that have predominantly elderly residents.
