Skip to main content

Canadian police department implements traffic signal priority

The District of Saanich’s Police Department in British Columbia, Canada, has awarded Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) a contract for the implementation of its latest-generation GPS-enabled Opticom pre-emption solution, which works alongside intersection controllers to help ensure emergency vehicles can move through intersections rapidly and safely. Saanich Fire Department is already a user of the Opticom system. The system includes a GPS component for location, direction, speed and ETA, as well as wirel
November 15, 2016 Read time: 1 min
The District of Saanich’s Police Department in British Columbia, Canada, has awarded 542 Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) a contract for the implementation of its latest-generation GPS-enabled Opticom pre-emption solution, which works alongside intersection controllers to help ensure emergency vehicles can move through intersections rapidly and safely. Saanich Fire Department is already a user of the Opticom system.

The system includes a GPS component for location, direction, speed and ETA, as well as wireless radio communications between authorised emergency vehicles and the intersections they approach. When an emergency vehicle needs to navigate an intersection quickly and safely, a request is sent to the intersection’s controller ahead of its arrival, turning the light green and clearing a path to enable the vehicle’s safe passage.

Related Content

  • February 15, 2024
    Prowag signals change to vision statement
    New pedestrian signal requirements designed to make crossings safer for the visually impaired mean that accessible signals are no longer just an option for US cities and municipalities. They now have the backing of the law, explains Andrew Stone
  • October 10, 2012
    Wireless technology aids city-wide traffic management
    An extensive hybrid communications network in the County of Los Angeles is proving the capability and benefits of modern wireless technology for traffic management across wide areas. Wireless communications technology has found a welcoming test bed for use in traffic management systems, in the County of Los Angeles. The county has long running programmes synchronizing and monitoring traffic signals over large areas. In the process, combined with installation of advanced traffic management systems (ATMS), th
  • August 23, 2024
    AVs light up New South Wales V2I trial
    Two self-driving vehicles are linking with Scats technology in Sydney collaboration
  • September 16, 2014
    Researchers devise snow ploughing algorithm
    Canadian researchers Olivier Quirion-Blais, Martin Trépanier and André Langevin have developed an algorithm to determine the most efficient routes for snow ploughs and gritters. Snow plough routing has always been something of a ‘black art’: to direct a fleet of show plough to clear priority roads without having the same road cleared several times while others are left untreated. Increasingly, GPS is being used to track the routes the clearing vehicles have taken but until now it has not been possible to ta