Next time you see a yellow light while driving in New York City — floor it!
An Upper West Side lawyer claims he was hit with a $50 ticket from a “gotcha” red-light camera — for blowing a light that changed so quickly that he didn’t have time to stop.
“I said no way that light gives you enough time,” said Joshua Bressler, an Upper West Side lawyer.
A month after passing through the intersection of 12th Avenue and 57th Street, he received a ticket in the mail.
As The Post revealed yesterday, the motorist- advocacy group AAA conducted a survey of a dozen traffic lights in intersections with cameras that found that some had shorter yellow lights.
In some instances, the light times were as much as 15 percent shorter than the guidelines the city claims to follow, according to the study.
“It’s a public-safety issue,” Bressler said. “This is about people slamming on brakes or speeding up through lights because they are being gamed. It needs to be fixed.”
The city’s Department of Transportation told him that the yellow light where he was ticketed was timed to change in three seconds, he said.
Bressler was adamant that it changed faster.
He fought the ticket in court, claiming that three seconds is not long enough to safely pass through that intersection. His appeals were denied.
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday dismissed the AAA study.
“Maybe if you think there’s less time, you won’t try to do it [run red lights],” he said. “I’m not sure why we give you any time at all. Running red lights kills people.”