Can Altering a Stoplight's Yellow Signal Help Save Lives?

You're coming up on an intersection and the light turns yellow. What do you do: Apply the brakes, or slam on the gas like you're trying to bust though a Nigerian military checkpoint?

This is actually a question that traffic engineers have spent countless hours investigating. Over the years, they've found that exactly how drivers react when a light switches to yellow has a lot to do with whether they're within the "dilemma zone," kind of like the "Danger Zone" but less cool (it doesn't involved high-altitude dogfights). This zone is a stretch of road before an intersection, varying in length according to a car's speed, in which a driver who sees a light go yellow might feel great indecision over what to do.