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This article was published 8/3/2011 (3493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Adding one second to the city's amber lights will not improve intersection safety, according to a new report released Tuesday.

Last fall, council's executive policy committee asked the city's public service to review a Georgia law that requires amber lights to be timed to U.S. federal engineering standards, plus one additional second. Traffic activists have argued the system would improve safety, and reduce reliance on things such as red-light cameras.

But city officials said their traffic engineering calculations show that the current four-second amber light times in Winnipeg are sufficient, even for large intersections where the speed limit reaches 80 kilometres per hour.

Luis Escobar, the city's manager of transportation, said based on traffic engineering studies, the four-second amber light times are likely longer than they need to be in smaller intersections.

In large intersections with higher traffic volumes and increased speeds, Escobar said the amber light is followed by a one-to-three-second solid red light in all directions, to ensure any remaining vehicles can safely clear the intersection before a light turns green.

"That would be a much safer situation than extending the amber," Escobar said. "Because if we extend the amber there wouldn't be that gap to make sure the intersection is clear for somebody on the side street to enter."

The city's report states that the duration of amber lights alone is not always enough to help reduce collisions. It will be reviewed by council's public works committee next Tuesday.

Wise Up Winnipeg traffic activist Todd Dube called the report "illogical" and said city officials are side-stepping the issue. Dube said officials did not speak with Georgia legislators about their system of amber-light timing, which saw an 80 per cent drop in the number of drivers ticketed by red-light cameras when they regulated it.

Dube said he does not believe the current amber-light times are adequate and questions the city's research.

"There is no logical reason not to," he said of the one-second increase.

Escobar said many agencies consider the amber-light time too short if one to three per cent of all vehicles that travel through an intersection run a red light.

By comparison, he said the highest number of red-light violations are recorded at Sargent Avenue and Clifton Street, but this represents a violation rate of .049 per cent.

"There is no real problem when it comes to red light running," Escobar said.

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca