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Union City makes its streets unsafe
Posted by: Spencer Pahlke
April 15, 2008
Topic: MUNI Accidents
As reported several places, first motorists.org, then leftlanenews.com, then sfist.com, then KQED, and now here, Union City decided to shorten its yellow light timing cycles below the legal limit. The result? In Union City, yellow lights ran shorter than other places. Why would Union City do this? If the yellow lights run for a shorter period of time, that means that the red light comes sooner--the end result being that more people who thought they were still in the yellow were actually in the red. Throw into the mix Union City's red-light cameras, and boom: instant revenue for the city when people are caught running red lights.
Of course, this underhanded way of scrounging up a little more revenue for the city is terrible policy. If yellow lights are made shorter, that buffer period between when cars can drive (green) and when they can't (duh, red), is shorter, meaning there is less time for cars to clear the intersection in one direction before they start coming in the other. This dangerous combination unnecessarily increases the risk of vehicle accidents and pedestrian accidents. And for what? A few extra dollars from red-light cameras? Bad idea.
If a person were injured because of these dangerous lights, there would likely be what is called a dangerous condition of public property: the municipality has created a condition that subjects its residents to unnecessary danger. In this case, sadly, there is a much stronger argument available against a city like Union City, which is intentionally, for its own financial benefit, putting its citizens at greater risk of injury.
At Walkup, we try all kinds of municipal liability cases, ranging from dangerous conditions of public property, to MUNI accidents, to medical malpractice of publicly employed doctors.
