Jul 18, 2007

Ft. Myers, Fla.- Lee County Department of Transportation, Lee County

Emergency Medical Services, and South Trail Fire Rescue District launched the traffic signal preemption system pilot program. The system is a means to ensure effective intersection signal priority control for safe and rapid emergency response.

Using GPS coordinates and when activated by emergency lights, a transmitter installed in an emergency vehicle will send vehicle speed, heading, longitude and latitude information to a receiver at an upcoming intersection where it requests green light priority through normal controller functions. By using GPS coordinates of the vehicles and sending the priority requests through the normal controller functions, the impact of the system should be transparent to the public.

Engineers with Lee County Traffic along with representatives with Lee County EMS, South Trail Fire Rescue District, and Lee County Fleet Maintenance have completed testing the initial implementation of the 3M Opticom™ GPS Priority Control System. The pilot program went live on July 16.

Lee County Fleet Maintenance installed transmitter devices in nine ambulances and one supervisor vehicle for Lee County EMS, as well as nine fire rescue vehicles for South Trail Fire Rescue. The Department of Transporation has installed receivers at the following intersections and in the following directions:

• US 41 and Island Park Rd N,S,E

• US 41 and Briarcliff Rd. N,S

• US 41 and West Jamaica Bay Blvd. N,S

• US 41 and Six Mile Cypress Pkwy./Gladiolus Dr. N,S

• US 41 and Andrea Ln. N,S

• US 41 and Market Square Plaza/Lakes Ter. N,S

• US 41 and Daniels Pkwy./Cypress Lake Dr. N,S,E

• US 41 and Cypress Trace Mall/Bell Tower Shops N,S

• US 41 and Big Pine Way/Seven Lakes Blvd. N,S

• US 41 and College Pkwy/Woodland Blvd. N,S

• US 41 and Crystal Dr. N,S,W

• US 41 and Oak Dr./Beacon Manor Dr. N,S

• US 41 and South Airport Rd. N,S

• US 41 and Boy Scout Dr./Fowler Ext. N,S

• US 41 and Page Field Commons/Sams Plaza N,S

• US 41 and North Airport Rd. N,S

• US 41 & Colonial Blvd N,S

• Daniels Pkwy and Bell Tower E,W

• Daniels Pkwy and Brynwood E,W

• Daniels Pkwy and Metro S,E,W

Representatives from Lee County Department of Transportation, Public Safety, Emergency Medical Services, Fire Chief's Association, and South Trail Fire Rescue District will evaluate the results and effects of the preemption system at these intersections. Studies in other major metropolitan areas have shown that an effective priority control system improves response times by an average of 20% while simultaneously reducing accidents at controlled intersections.

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