City of Phoenix Plans To Extend Yellow Lights To Decrease Red-Light Running

The City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department is making changes to Phoenix intersections that will hopefully help decrease crashes and save lives.

After several months of a long study the Phoenix Street Transportation Department are making plans to extend yellow light times to see the if there is an impact on longer timed yellow lights and if the additional time changes driver behavior and red light running.

This city of Phoenix focused the study on 12 intersections across the city. They found that extending yellow light times reduced red-light running up to 60%.

City data shows that red light-running crashes continued to increase in Arizona to a record 62 in 2021.

The hope is that longer yellow light durations could give people more time to stop and cut down on the dangerous and potentially fatal crashes.

Several years ago, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, known as ITE, released new guidelines for safer yellow light timing.

Most cities in the Valley have shorter timed lights. Of the 10 largest cities in the Phoenix Metro area, Peoria is the only city that follows the ITE-recommended standard.

Phoenix transportation officials believe they too should move toward the ITE standard.

Phoenix will work immediately to start making the changes as early as this summer. The change should be completed to all yellow traffic light times within the next three years.