[josephers]

The yellow light does mean "clear the intersection", but its purpose is not to give pedestrians time to finish their crossing. There are many things that have to clear the intersections, not just pedestrians. Plus, the decrease they talk about in Florida is only by fractions of a second, anyway.

Here in Toronto, we have an additional two seconds of "all red" light after any yellow lights, to give time for left-turning vehicles to finish their turn.

[kbenson]

Plus, the decrease they talk about in Florida is only by fractions of a second, anyway.

The decision was made for poor reasons. There's nothing preventing them from making the same decision for the same reasons again, effectively increasing the reduction of time. It's important to call out poor behavior in government lest, even if it's slight, lest it become institutionalized and then exacerbated.