Red Light Camera News Winnipeg REFUSES to add Amber to RLC intersections!
News Winnipeg
Keep amber lights as is: report
By Winnipeg Sun
Last Updated: March 8, 2011 3:31pm
Winnipeg's civic administration is recommending amber lights at intersections not be extended beyond their current four-second length — a move that has photo enforcement opponents up in arms.
A report that will go before council's infrastructure and public works committee next Tuesday recommends keeping the uniform four-second ambers at all city traffic lights, at least in part because the city already adjusts intersection clearance times on higher-speed streets by increasing the "all-red interval." That interval is a short period of time that the lights are red in all directions, which is meant to reduce collisions.
"That's when the extra time is needed," said Luis Escobar, Winnipeg's manager of transportation.
Photo enforcement opponents tout longer amber times as a way of reducing both collisions and red-light violations, arguing that the shorter the amber light, the less time a driver has to clear an intersection.
"There's no logical reason to have a short amber other than the opportunity to fine," said Todd Dube, of the lobby group Wise Up Winnipeg. "Intersections aren't inherently dangerous. They're managed by timing."
Dube said he's not surprised the city is recommending reliance on the all-red interval instead of the amber times.
"It would have exposed everything we've been alleging. It's in the data. They know what they're hiding," he said.
But Escobar said studies that suggest longer amber times reduce red light violations cannot be applied to Winnipeg, because a driver must enter the intersection when the light is red here to violate the law, not enter on a green or amber and exit on a red.
"Some things don't necessarily transfer very well," he said.
During last fall's civic election campaign, mayoral challenger Judy Wasylycia-Leis pledged to pilot a project that would have lengthened some amber lights. But Mayor Sam Katz took the stance that he would let the administration study the issue first, and the executive policy committee therefore ordered the report, which was just released this week.
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