Intelligent Traffic Signal Pre-emption of Emergency Vehicles

Halytysajoneuvojen alykas pakkoetuus liikennevaloissa

Modern emergency vehicles are fast and heavy. In emergency situations they can also violate regulations. Pre-emption of traffic signals has thus become important in increasing traffic safety. The central aim of this project was to define the possibilities of new technology in giving pre-emption to emergency vehicles at traffic signals. The purpose was to create a system that could be taken into use in the city of Tampere by the year 2005 and that could also be applied in other Finnish cities. The background of the work lies in an organizational reform of rescue functions. As a result of the reform municipal rescue departments and police emergency centres that previously have functioned separately will be joined together by the year 2006. The new rescue department of Pirkanmaa region will be established in Tampere and it will start to operate in December 2004. At the moment the pre-emption of traffic signals is done manually by the Tampere rescue department using approximately 50 push-buttons. The pre-emption functions well and the new system has to obtain equal results. In this paper the solution is based on the idea of transmitting data from the vehicle using the VIRVE net. The VIRVE net is based on TETRA technology. A request is sent to a pre-programmed route from the VIRVE data terminal in the vehicle. After the vehicle has passed the route the pre-emption will be set off. In the city of Lahti a different kind of a pre-emption system has been tested. In an emergency situation the requests of the pre-emption will automatically be transferred from a vehicle to the traffic signal system by a simple transmitter. The technical tests have shown that the equipment functions flawlessly. The first phase of the system has been decided to be realised during autumn 2004. The city of Tampere will wait for the experiences of the implementation and functioning gained in Lahti. If the Lahti system functions as expected also in the winter time it should be considered a potential system in other cities as well. Should the Lahti system prove disfunctional, the VIRVE net based system provides a spare system. This report is available at http://www.vtt.fi/rte/projects/fits/ or http://www.mintc.fi

• Record URL:
  http://www.mintc.fi
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/952201110X
• Authors:
  • AHONEN, A
  • LEHTEINEN, T
  • BACKSTROM, J
• Publication Date: 2004

Language

• Finnish

Media Info

• Pagination: 90p
• Serial:
  • PUBLICATIONS OF THE MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS - FITS PUBLICATIONS
  • Issue Number: 49
  • Publisher: MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS
  • ISSN: 1457-7488

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus priority; Emergency vehicles; Intelligent transportation systems; Traffic signals
• Geographic Terms: Finland
• ITRD Terms: 1261: Emergency vehicle; 8035: Finland; 8735: Intelligent transport system; 648: Priority (traffic); 565: Traffic signal
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01015309
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: TRL
• ISBN: 952-201-110-X
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Jan 12 2006 8:57AM