More time added for yellow lights at high-speed intersections in Winnipeg

The City of Winnipeg is giving drivers a slightly wider gap to get through yellow lights at some city intersections.

In an online post Wednesday, the city said it recently changed the duration of yellow lights at intersections with speed limits of 70 km/h or higher.

Before the changes, all yellow lights lasted a uniform four seconds before turning red, but the city now says they’ve increased that time to 4.3 seconds at intersections with a 70 km/h speed limit, and 4.7 seconds on roadways with a 80 km/h speed limit.

The changes went into effect at 110 different intersections between Aug. 31 and Sept. 4.

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“We used a combination of the technical research from national and international organizations, and engineering judgement applied appropriately with knowledge of local context, to calculate the traffic light duration values,” said Greg Blatz, the city’s supervisor of traffic signal timing, in the post.

“The increase on high speed routes represents a balance between safety, efficiency, and driver expectation.”

Blatz said yellow light times on 50 km/h and 60 km/h streets will remain consistent with the four seconds used previously.

The city says the new light duration “has been more precisely calculated on the speed limit and slope of the roadway.”

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