Did you all know this ?
Did you know that by law the yellow or amber light must remain on at least one second for every 10 MPH of the posted speed limit in the USA ?
Last night on US4 near here I came to a light on green that turned yellow, then red in about 3 seconds and so as I was doing 55 MPH I couldn’t stop and the truck behind me crossed also, I noticed a trooper pull out from a parking area and follow us, I was pulling into a truck stop to drop my trailer anyway and he pulled the other guy in behind me and came over to me to ask why I ran the red light, I explained that it changed so fast it would have been dangerous to try and stop so fast, then the other driver pointed out the second per MPH law and said for him to get a ticket the yellow needed to be on for at least 5.5 seconds and the cop agree’d and said he knew that law and would report the fault to the town office.
I did some research this morning and it seems NYC are having to refund fines to drivers caught by red light cameras because the lights did not conform to the rule.
1/10th of a second?? 1 second would mean it must’ve remained yellow for 55 seconds, not 5.5 
waynedl:
1/10th of a second?? 1 second would mean it must’ve remained yellow for 55 seconds, not 5.5
My error … one second for every 10 mph LOL
Pat Hasler:
waynedl:
1/10th of a second?? 1 second would mean it must’ve remained yellow for 55 seconds, not 5.5My error … one second for every 10 mph LOL
so the light has to stay yellow for the better part of a minute?? Are you sure?
Bale Bandit:
Pat Hasler:
waynedl:
1/10th of a second?? 1 second would mean it must’ve remained yellow for 55 seconds, not 5.5My error … one second for every 10 mph LOL
so the light has to stay yellow for the better part of a minute?? Are you sure?
Thats not what he is saying
How do you figure one minute ? 1 second for every 10 mph means 5.5 seconds for a 55 mph limit 
In NYC the 30 MPH limit means it must stay yellow for 3 seconds minimum.
I read it as 1 second per 1 MH that’s my error
In this part of the world if the limit is 100 kph and your doing 100.5 kph your done, unlike Britain where if I remember right there was 10% lee way. The highway patrol here is very strict no gray areas, ticket first then take it to court if you think there is room for appeal, and it’s going to to cost you $1500 a day for a lawyer as well.
Amber means stop here and according to the law you should always travel at a speed where you can stop the vehicle safely at all times. Also there is fine if you are holding up the flow of traffic, so you loose either way
Al traffic fines go straight to the police budget, and some of the stuff is very petty.
I arrived at a ware house one day and it was packed with trucks off loading so I had to park outside in the industrial estate. It was 45+ so I had a lie down on the bunk, the engine was running to run the air con. 10 minutes later there was a knock at the door, I though it was the ware house guy calling me in. Wrong! highway patrol $90 +1 point.
Attempting to drive a road vehicle while not wearing a seat belt, gave me a ticket and told me if I didn’t like it I should go to court.
In my politest manner I informed him that when there was a real crime and the public closed ranks on the police he should think back to moments like this and it wouldn’t be hard to work out why everyone despised them.
One of our guys was maneuvering round a tight yard one day and to get an extra bit of room on a cut he stuck the nose of the truck outside the gate. RTA road traffic authority (VOSA) just happened to see him, as he was just shunting in the yard so he didn’t have his seat belt on. $90 and point.
Jeff…
Pat youre a git you got me counting amber lights at traffic lights this week
taffytrucker:
Pat youre a git you got me counting amber lights at traffic lights this week
that’s gotta hurt has the boss lady taught you up to 5 yet
nick2008:
taffytrucker:
Pat youre a git you got me counting amber lights at traffic lights this weekthat’s gotta hurt has the boss lady taught you up to 5 yet
Nope still useing my fingers 
taffytrucker:
Pat youre a git you got me counting amber lights at traffic lights this week
But I got you thinking didn’t I ?
Pat Hasler:
taffytrucker:
Pat youre a git you got me counting amber lights at traffic lights this weekBut I got you thinking didn’t I ?
Yea am not used to that
Jelliot:
In this part of the world if the limit is 100 kph and your doing 100.5 kph your done, unlike Britain where if I remember right there was 10% lee way.
Not strictly true.
In the UK, a speedo has to be accurate to within 10%. Most manufacturers make speedos so they show faster than you are going. (In my current car, 60mph shown on speedo is 56mph by 2 different satnavs. In my last car, 60mph on speedo was 54 on satnav)
Because of the 10% rule, police tend to ignore anyone doing within 10% of the speed limit +3mph. (I can’t remember the reason for the +3mph. I think this is something to do with police car speedo calibration)
The theory being that a car doing 79mph could have their speedo showing 70. If so, then the police wont be able to prosecute as there is no way of proving that the driver knew of the inaccuracy of the speedo. So they just don’t bother.
A traffic cop friend of mine (now retired) said that they were ‘encouraged’ to not bother with anyone doing less than 100 on the motorway, as it isn’t worth the paperwork.
Clunk:
Jelliot:
In this part of the world if the limit is 100 kph and your doing 100.5 kph your done, unlike Britain where if I remember right there was 10% lee way.Not strictly true.
In the UK, a speedo has to be accurate to within 10%. Most manufacturers make speedos so they show faster than you are going. (In my current car, 60mph shown on speedo is 56mph by 2 different satnavs. In my last car, 60mph on speedo was 54 on satnav)
Because of the 10% rule, police tend to ignore anyone doing within 10% of the speed limit +3mph. (I can’t remember the reason for the +3mph. I think this is something to do with police car speedo calibration)
The theory being that a car doing 79mph could have their speedo showing 70. If so, then the police wont be able to prosecute as there is no way of proving that the driver knew of the inaccuracy of the speedo. So they just don’t bother.
A traffic cop friend of mine (now retired) said that they were ‘encouraged’ to not bother with anyone doing less than 100 on the motorway, as it isn’t worth the paperwork.
A speedo is allowed to read 10% over, ie 60=54, but NOT 10% under.
I think the main reason for speedo’s being out more often now is because of the options list when buying a car, you get a Mondeo with 16" alloys, but on the options list is 19" alloys, they’re not going to recalibrate the speedo for the different circumference so they make sure that even the 19" alloys are reading slightly higher than actual (different tyre profiles etc also affect speedo accuracy obviously).
My BMW reads bang on upto around 90mph where it’s 89mph on the sat nav, no idea why but I guess it’s because it was only an option with the wheels it’s got or something? They’re only 16" wheels but the profile are like balloons 