Are Winnipeg's Yellow Lights Adequate?

All yellow lights in Winnipeg are 4.0 seconds and are timed while assuming that the law regarding yellow timing is permissive. A permissive law means that vehicles are allowed to enter the intersection until to the end of the yellow duration and possibly clear during the red. Under this type of law, the yellow must be long enough only for any vehicle that is too close to the intersection to stop when the yellow is first displayed to enter the intersection before the red. The stopping distance is determined by three variables, the initial speed, the rate of deceleration and the perception/reaction time. According to various Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) documents, the rate of deceleration is -10 ft/s2 and the perception/reaction time is 1 second. Using this information, it can be determined if Winnipeg's yellows are adequate for each speed zone.

80 km/h Intersections
A vehicle travelling 80 km/h is moving at 73 ft/s. With a deceleration rate of -10 ft/ s2, it will take 7.3 seconds for that vehicle to stop. The average rate of speed during that time is going to be 36.5 ft/s. While stopping, the vehicle will travel 267 ft (36.5 ft/s x 7.3 s) and when that is added to the 73 ft travelled during the perception reaction time, it is found that the stopping distance at 80 km/h is 339 ft. With a 4.0 second yellow, vehicles are only able to travel 292 ft (73 ft/s x 4.0 sec) during the duration of the 4.0 second yellow. This creates a 47 ft area where a vehicle can neither stop before the intersection or enter before the red and that known as the dilemma zone.

70 km/h Intersections
A vehicle travelling 70 km/h is moving at 64 ft/s and will take 6.4 seconds to stop. During the stopping and perception reaction time, the vehicle will travel 267 ft. With a 4.0 second yellow, vehicles are only able to travel 255 ft during the duration of the yellow creating a 12 ft dilemma zone. The dilemma zone still exists at 70 km/h intersections but is not as large as in 80 km/h intersections.

60 km/h Intersections
A vehicle travelling 60 km/h is moving at 55 ft/s and will take 5.5 seconds to stop. During the stopping and perception reaction time, the vehicle will travel 204 ft. With a 4.0 second yellow, vehicles are able to travel 219 ft during the duration of the yellow. When the stopping distance is less than the distance travelled during the yellow duration, the opposite of a dilemma zone is created which is called an option zone. The option zone is the area where a vehicle can both stop or go when the light turns yellow. At 60 km/h intersections, the option zone is 15 ft long.

50 km/h Intersections
A vehicle travelling 50 km/h is moving at 46 ft/s and will take 4.6 seconds to stop. During the stopping and perception reaction time, the vehicle will travel 149 ft. With a 4.0 second yellow, vehicles are able to travel 182 ft during the duration of the yellow creating a 23 ft option zone. Due to the lower speed, the option zone is larger than it is for a 60 km/h intersection.

Conclusions
Winnipeg is the only major city in western Canada that doesn't increase the duration of the yellow signal for high speed intersections. This creates what is known as a dilemma zone for many drivers in 70 and 80 km/h zones who get caught into a situation where they can't stop or go. To adapt, Winnipeg is forcing drivers caught in this zone to break harder than the values accepted by engineering standards. Drivers who are unable to do this will get caught by the red light cameras. This is why cameras in 80 km/h zones issue 600% more tickets than those in lower speed zones. The dilemma zones represented in this document are the absolute minimums. They can be considered even larger by the standards used in some other jurisdictions. The perception reaction time used for these calculations was 1.0 seconds. Some jurisdictions calculate using a 1.5 second and sometimes up to a 1.8 second perception/reaction time which increases the stopping distance. In addition, many jurisdictions calculate their yellows using the travelling (85th percentile) speed instead of posted limit. When this is done, the yellow is normally calculated using the speed limit plus 7 mph. If considering higher travelling speeds or longer perception/reaction times, the yellows in Winnipeg are even more inadequate. The problem with these calculations is that they rely on drivers being allowed to legally enter the intersection on yellow and clear the intersection on the red under a permissive yellow. In reality, the Manitoba Highway traffic act states that:
Yellow traffic control light or arrow at intersection 88(5) When a yellow or amber traffic control light or arrow is being shown at an intersection by a traffic control signal following or accompanying a green traffic control light, (a) the driver of a vehicle at or approaching the intersection and facing the light or arrow shall not enter the intersection, unless he can leave it before a red traffic control light or such other signal as next follows, begins to be shown; and

This law means that Manitoba has what is called a restrictive yellow and is the only province to have that type of law. Under this law, yellow lights not only have to be long enough for traffic that is caught within stopping distance of stop line to enter the intersection before the red, but must also must be able to cross the intersection. Yellow lights in Winnipeg need to be timed to remove the dilemma zone in higher speeds and as long as the HTA remains as it is, must be even longer to allow traffic to clear the intersection before the red.