Yellow lights to get longer on some Missouri roads

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Drivers who hurry through yellow lights will soon have a little more time to do so at roughly 2,000 traffic signals on Missouri-controlled roads and highways.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday that the Missouri Department of Transportation will slightly lengthen the yellow light timing at many signals, hoping that adding a few fractions of a second may reduce accidents. The timing increase should take place by the end of the year.

The move comes after a national study encouraging traffic engineers to give more weight to vehicle stopping distances at traffic signals.

The work actually began earlier this year in the St. Louis area, with the yellow light time increase ranging from tenths of a second to 1.6 seconds at an intersection on Highway 141 in Arnold.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com