Cleanup of 5th wheel accident in California

valhalla360 wrote:
The yellow time is typically set to account for perception/reaction time plus the time to come to a stop.

The issue is that many yellow light times are set too short...compounded by the fact that many roads regularly run faster than the speed limit.

It's not uncommon for the traffic on a 45 mph-limit road to run 55-60 on a regular basis. Cars today, even the cheap ones, perform so much better than the cars we drove when speed limits were set on these roads, it's no issue for a car to run 60 in a 45 and stop with ease, even in sub-par road conditions (rain, snow). The big rig guys (semis and RVs) run with the traffic and now don't have sufficient time to stop on yellow.

Not sure why state DOTs are determined to set yellow times at the minimum calculated times instead of making them a little longer and a little safer.