How many times have you had to make this decision?
Approaching a traffic light when it turns yellow; now what? Stop or go?
The State of Florida hopes some changes coming to the signal timing will help make that decision easier. They're lengthening the yellow on traffic lights statewide.
How many lights? More than 500 intersections will see the longer yellow cycle in Hillsborough County alone.
Dr. Pei-Sung Lin is a researcher at the Center for Urban Transportation Research at USF. He puts the issue in perspective.
"I think the most important thing is for safety,” he said. “Because that slight increase would reduce the number of people who run a red light."
Researchers say when driving and approaching a traffic signal, if that light turns yellow, we make up our minds in one second whether we're going to hit the gas or hit the brake.
That one second researchers call "the perception-reaction time." By making the yellow longer, the state hopes to lessen that dilemma.
For example, the timing of a yellow light for a road marked at 50 miles-per-hour will be lengthened four tenths of a second.
Based on your speed, you'll have between a half second to a full second longer to clear an intersection.
At its core, this issue is not about the timing of the lights, but of the inability of drivers to drive within the speed limits.
"Based on a recent national study, the approaching speed actually is about up to seven mph higher than the posted speed limit," Dr. Pei-Sung Lin said.