Emergency Vehicle Priority System

1. Emergency Vehicle Priority System Naztec.Inc.ATMS solutions Palm Beach County Traffic Division Intergraph Public Safety Palm Beach County Fire Rescue

2. History PBC Fire Chiefs Assoc. researches traffic preemption systems to improve emergency response and fire fighter safety They selected a system from Midwestern Traffic that was GPS based

3. History Palm Beach County and other Cities purchased some traffic preemption units A pilot program was conducted to validate improvement of response time and firefighter safety

4. Pilot test findings • Devices disrupted normal traffic patterns and confused drivers • Emergency units would in effect push traffic down the road in front of them not clear traffic (snow plow effect) • Caused significant backups at intersections • Analysis didn’t prove any reduction of response time.

5. Issues to solve • Traffic disruption • Snowplow effect • Space issue of equipment on the Vehicles • Installation, maintenance and support costs at the intersections • Damage to equipment at traffic signals by lightning and hurricanes • Product availability

6. Solution Working with PBC Traffic, Naztec, and Intergraph a design was developed to control the lights through the central traffic controller via network connection to the traffic signals.

7. How it will work • Computer Aided dispatch system will provide data to the county traffic system on all emergency response • Incident Location (Address) • Units assigned to the incident • Suggested route for each unit to incident • Latitude and Longitude of each vehicle assigned to the incident

8. Demonstration

9. Proof of concept results Test site station 19 Jupiter Normal driving 5:15 Engine code 3 with no priority 4:12 Engine code 3 with priority 2:50 (1:22) Rescue code 3 no priority 3:58 Rescue code 3 with priority 2:45 (1:13)

10. Equipment based preemption system Cost • $ 267,000 $1,335 Equipment and installation per Vehicle X 200 vehicles • $6,105,000 $10,175 Equipment per Intersection X 600 intersections • $6,372,000 Total equipment and installation costs • $ 100,000 Additional personnel to support installation and maint per year • $ 215,000 Annual support costs • $ 315,000 Annual maintenance and support costs

11. Emergency Vehicle Priority system cost • Emergency Vehicle priority system $2,100,000 • Annual software maintenance $ 215,000

12. Summary The emergency vehicle priority system • Costs significantly less to purchase • Minimizes traffic disruption • Eliminates snowplow effect and reduces response time • Reduces future re-curing costs • No additional equip in emergency vehicles • No equipment on traffic poles to be damaged by hurricanes and lightning • Increases firefighter and public safety when responding • Less stress on drivers of emergency vehicle