EPIC – Emergency Vehicle Traffic Light Pre-emption in Cities

Red light running through signalized intersections is perceived as one of the most dangerous manoeuvres for an Emergency Vehicles (EV). It is estimated that European EVs are involved in 88 000 traffic accidents yearly out of which 37 900 EV accidents happen in intersections yearly in Europe. It is estimated that these crashes accounts for 164 deaths.

Traffic flow simulations have showed that if EVs where given green phase at signalized intersections, the average trip time would be reduced by 10 percent. This means that a system for EV traffic light pre-emption has the potential of saving the European society a substantial amount of money yearly while also improving traffic safety.

The purpose of EPIC is to design and demonstrate a system, compliant with the European standardization effort, that allows emergency vehicles to send request for pre-emption (green phase) to signalized intersections. Through such a system the need for emergency vehicles to run red-lights at intersections is eliminated. It is anticipated that this will improve the safety of intersection crossing for EVs by more than 50 percent – saving lives and money.

The objectives of the EPIC project are:

1. Construction of a prediction algorithm for the EV route.
2. Handling of EV route changes or miss-predicted route.
3. Optimization of ITS-G5 application for EV traffic light pre-emption to allow for the best possible impact in terms of reduced number of EV accidents and reduced EV response times.