Windsor's Environment, Transportation and Public Safety Standing Committee has approved the removal of five traffic lights across the city.
According to a report, many of the signals are more than 30 years old and were installed when they were warranted, but changing traffic volumes have found they're no longer needed.
The lights at Sandwich and Brock St. and Campbell and Grove Ave were on the list for removal, but Ward 2 councillor Fabio Costante made a motion to have them removed as they're both near elementary schools.
He says he respects administration's recommendation, but is erring on the side of caution.
"I often take seriously the recommendations and the reports given to us by our traffic engineers, but what I think weighs heavily here are a lot of the soft factors or the intangible factors that, all together, contribute to safety and perceived safety in our neighbourhoods."
Costante says safety needs to be priority one.
"In both of the intersections that I asked to be excluded, those intersections are gateways to grade schools. At the Brock intersection is Brock grade school. It's a very busy intersection that I encounter on a day-to-day. We get thousands and thousands of cars that drive through this intersection every day."
He says he receives the most resident complaints from the Campbell and Grove area.
"The most amount of complaints that I get as a ward councillor for traffic calming are, in fact, specifically in that area," he continued. "If we were to hypothetically remove the stop lights at Campbell and Grove as an example, we would from College to Tecumseh have no speed calming measure. You'd have no stop light and you have a wide, wide road."
Costante's motion was unanimously supported by the committee, but the plan still needs final approval from city council.
If approved, lights will be removed at Aylmer Ave and Chatham St. E., Kildare Rd. and Seneca St., Lauzon Rd. and McHugh St., Riverside Dr. E. at the Hiram Walker parking lot and Banwell Rd. and Mulberry Dr.