I read a letter you wrote which was posted at http://www.portlandtransport.com, I'm very concerned that you'll be using this money to purchase Red Light Cameras.

There's been a lot of research recently that indicates that lengthening yellow light times by as little as a second can cause a significant reduction in the number of cars that run a red light. Here's a quote from the Wikipedia page on red light cameras:

In May 2001 Dick Armey, then Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, issued a report suggesting that a more effective alternative to red light cameras would be to increase the yellow traffic light warning times. He suggested red light cameras exploited intersections where signal timing was shorter than necessary for some motorists to come to a complete stop (July 2001 U.S. House testimony). A 2004 Texas Department of Transportation study found, "crashes decrease with an increase in yellow interval duration and a reduction in speed limit." After 1.0 second was added to the yellow signal timing at test intersections, accidents dropped by 35 to 40%. This compares with a 6.4% reduction for "area-wide officer enforcement of intersection traffic control devices... during the time of the enforcement activity"

You can read the study here: http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-4196-2.pdf

Have you looked into lengthening yellow light times? My fear as that red light cameras will act less as a deterrent and more as a revenue generator for the city.

Thanks