ROSWELL, Ga. — The city of Roswell is installing emergency vehicle preemption technology at all 107 of its traffic lights, along with lights run by the state.
The city’s system by Alpharetta-based Applied Information speeds up emergency response times by giving emergency responders a green light, so they can respond to emergencies faster and safer.
Each fire truck, ambulance and police car is equipped with GPS and cellular devices that communicate with traffic signals to request a green light.
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“Those street lights are actually tracking via GPS that unit coming with lights and sirens, so it already knows you’re coming,” said Roswell Fire Chief Pabel Troche. “Not only does it know you’re coming, it starts taking pre-action to clear and decongest that path.”
The technology, of course, also gives cross traffic a yellow and then red light at the same time.
The city said the system can reduce response times by as much as 20%, “getting life-saving help to those who need it quickly and safely: faster response times, fewer crashes, safer roads for everyone.”
Installing the system is costing the city about $770,000.
Roswell Mayor Kurt Wilson said the growing city, with increasing congestion, needs to shorten emergency response times. One option is to build new fire stations, at a cost of about $12 million each, but he said that’s not economically prudent.
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“They got very entrepreneurial and very ingenious and used a technology as a way to solve a problem,” he said.
For decades, emergency vehicles have been able to change traffic lights to green. Their strobe lights and sirens can activate traffic signals to give them the right of way, but the new technology relies on GPS and cell signals to communicate with the traffic lights well before the vehicle gets to the intersection.
The technology has been installed at traffic lights in Alpharetta since 2019, according to a YouTube video posted by Applied Information. In the first six months, the system resulted in an 18% drop in response time, about 10 seconds per light, Scott McCullers, the city fire operations chief, said in 2020.
The technology is also used in Marietta, the company’s promotional material said.
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