North Fulton County

Roswell’s new traffic signal tech gives emergency vehicles priority

ROSWELL, Ga. — The city of Roswell is installing emergency vehicle preemption technology at all 107 of its traffic lights.

The city’s system by Alpharetta-based Applied Information speeds up emergency response times by giving emergency responders a green light so they can respond to emergencies faster and safer.

In its video announcement, the city of Roswell explained how the system works: “Emergency vehicles equipped with GPS and cellular technology communicate wirelessly with traffic signals to request a green light as the vehicle approaches the intersection.” The technology, of course, also gives cross traffic a yellow then red light at the same time.

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The city said the system can reduce response times by as much as 20%, “getting getting life-saving help to those who need it quickly and safely: faster response times, fewer crashes, safer roads for everyone.”

The technology has been installed at traffic lights in Alpharetta since 2019, according to a YouTube video posted by Applied Information. In the first six months, the system resulted in an 18% drop in response time, about 10 seconds per light, Scott McCullers, the city fire operations chief, said in 2020.

The technology is also used in Marietta, the company’s promotional material said.

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