Red light cameras don’t work

Bruce Schneier has some coverage of recent research examining the effectiveness of red light cameras.  Bottom line?  It turns out they tend to cause more problems then they solve.  Either:

• They increase crashes and injuries because of the increase in people suddenly braking hard (and getting rear ended / pushed into the intersection).

or:

• Cities try to game the system by intentionally shortening the yellow light cycle (in a number of cases below the legal limit; who knew there was a legal limit for the length of a yellow light?) in order to drive up ticket revenue.