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Have you ever suspected that your city or town is trying too hard to catch traffic scofflaws in the pursuit of ticket revenue? A Florida woman received a ticket based on evidence from a red light camera, but believed the ticket was unfair because the yellow light was too short. The power of math proved that she was correct.<\/a>.<\/p>\n Her math tutor husband took a stopwatch to the intersection where she received the ticket, and set out to vindicate her. He discovered that yellow lights at that intersection are eight tenths of a second shorter than county guidelines require.<\/p>\n That doesn’t excuse every ticket issued for red-light violations, but it’s enough of a discrepancy to make county residents suspicious.<\/p>\n “I said, ‘If it’s really short, then you got short-changed and you got a ticket illegally,'” said [Mike] Mogil.<\/p>\n The speed limit on Collier Boulevard, where she was cited, is 45 mph. According to county guidelines, the yellow light should be 4.5 seconds.<\/p>\n Mogil said he tested it 15 times with an average of only 3.8 seconds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Collier County Transportation Department claims that the short yellow lights were an oversight, and that they are checking stoplights countywide in order to prevent more erroneous tickets.<\/p>\n