L&S - Traffic Signal Preemption Systems

[Shishkabob]

The vast majority of citizens in my areas either never took driver's ed or Have forgotten completely what they were taught. I Have lost count of how many wrecks That almost happened going to a call That Would have been labeled my fault because I was the medic on the Call and my truck was running code regardless of how conservative/safe me or my partner were driving.

Their lack of situational awareness would have been my fault.

Same reason why there is such a high fatality rate among motorcyclists, as most of the accidents are not caused by the motorcycle, but by the other drivers on the road.



There are just too many people driving that have no reason at all to be driving. For such a dangerous privilege, the government is way too damn lax on how to obtain a license.

 

[NomadicMedic]

We have pretty strict policies on L&S response and transport. We actually transport the majority of our calls cold. And we respond cold to several categories of calls as well.

I know Charlotte MEDIC did a study on response time, and as a result, many of their responses are cold.

Frankly, for safety's sake, I'd like to never run L&S. But without a little help to clear some traffic, we'd never get there.

 

[jjesusfreak01]

There are just too many people driving that have no reason at all to be driving. For such a dangerous privilege, the government is way too damn lax on how to obtain a license.

This is true, but there's not much we can do about it. Because we don't have the right level of public transportation and many people live outside the cities, cars are necessary for most, even if most people stink at driving.

 

[Shishkabob]

This is true, but there's not much we can do about it. Because we don't have the right level of public transportation and many people live outside the cities, cars are necessary for most, even if most people stink at driving.

There is PLENTY we can do about it, just like there is PLENTY we can do about the national debt, but people are too damn scared of making idiots angry.



If you suck at driving, you don't need to be driving, period.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Amen. I don't know what the deal is, but I was spoiled in Washington state. The phrase, "move to the right for sirens and lights" is ingrained there. Here, people either don't move at all, or freak out and pull to the left... Stop in the middle of the road... Speed up to race us...

I think a big part of it is lack of public education.


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- Sent from my iPhone.

 

[jjesusfreak01]

There is PLENTY we can do about it, just like there is PLENTY we can do about the national debt, but people are too damn scared of making idiots angry.

If you suck at driving, you don't need to be driving, period.

You go ahead and tell all the upper class heavily ticketed drivers that they can't drive a car anymore and see how long that lasts. They'll wine to the politicians and some judge will declare it to a be a violation of their rights.

 

[Shishkabob]

Like I said... Plenty to be done if people weren't so scared of making people angry.


Like reminding people that driving isn't a right.

 

[Tigger]

This does seem like a good idea. It doesn't have to be on every intersection. Only the intersections that seem really busy, like in my trip to a particular hospital, I have to cross a highway with traffic lights. It is often pretty ridiculous to run lights and sirens through the red light.

I'm just wondering how much something like this would cost per intersection and per rig.

The system is much more effective if installed at every intersection. The strobe light that triggers the system is powerful enough to be picked up by sensors at quite a distance. If you are running in a straight line, you will get a string of green lights which keeps you from having to stop at red lights, and keeps traffic flowing in the direction of your travel. Even if you turn off that route, all other directions of travel receive a red light so you can't cut anyone off turning left.

Two emergency vehicles approaching the intersection becomes a safer situation as well. Around here, the first vehicle to preempt the light has priority, regardless of agency. The system is then locked out from further use, so a second vehicle will be shown a red light and the strobe on top of the signal will be activated, alerting the second vehicle that the intersection has already been preempted. This doesn't eliminate dangerous situations, but it helps.

The strobe and receiver is not the only option either. Colorado Springs, CO has a unique GPS based system that is linked to the city's traffic control center. When a call comes in, the responding vehicle is shown on a moving map with the fastest route already chosen on the MDT. The kicker is that all the lights on that route are automatically turned green when the vehicle gets within a certain distance of the signal. This gets rid of the foggy day messing with the strobe sensors problem.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

That's what I was thinking about too. What could help with that are those rumbler sirens too. If your town can afford these systems, they sure as hell can afford a sub-woofer for your siren.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVdUUyGrz2o[/youtube]

It sounds funny, but it is very effective. It practically vibrates the car. We don't have it here, but I've seen a demonstration of it at a conference.

We have a rumbler. I love it.

It's great for coming around bends with trees and pulling out onto traffic initially responding.