Shorter, longer, go faster either way

Yellow lights get me.  There is such a state of indecisiveness when I am approaching an intersection and the light turns yellow.  Do I step on it and hope to beat it before its red?  Do I slam on my brakes and hope I stop nicely behind the white line or at least not in the intersection?  This is a valid decision most drivers make everyday.  However, what do the drivers that travel in different areas regularly do?! 

After spending majority of the summer in Pittsburgh where driving in the city doesn't allow you to really hit maximum speeds, and when approaching intersections its more common to be closer to a crawl then actually moving, I rarely ran yellows.  And if anything I was the person who stopped to avoid being stuck in the intersection because I despise the idiot who blocks traffic in every direction because they really thought some magic traffic god would make the traffic start going that they would actually make it through the light.   The yellows in the city, while you're crawling through the traffic during rush hour are farely long.  While I have no scientific data and a quick google search provided me with no real estimates, I'd say the yellow lights are closer to 10 seconds. Now though, I'm back in good ol' central PA.  I've run yellows/reds a lot in a very short amount of days.   Yellow lights in Clearfield (again no scientific data) are only 3-4 seconds long.  Now lets think about this.  In central PA traffic can move at decent speeds.  There is no rush hour unless you're going to count a sale at Wal-Mart on a Saturday morning.  Speed limits coming into town are in the 30-40 mph range.  So I see a light turn yellow, I have minimal time to make my decision to brake or not.  Either way, I feel it's a lose-lose situation... I'm running a red or I'm almost in an intersection/have the car behind me on my bumper because they counted on gunning it too. 

There are two simple options...  1.) Lights in the city should be shorter, traffic is barely moving, and lights in the country longer!  This would save a ton of red light runners everyday! I would be certain I'd make it through that yellow!  or 2.) Make yellow lights more universal!  I wouldn't have to accustom myself to a shorter life, and all in all it'd make my life easier! :)