Transcore knows the way to San Jose

First published at ITS America - June 7, 2019

The city of San Jose is analysing its emergency vehicle response routes after successful implementation of a centralised emergency vehicle pre-emption (CEVP) system from Transcore.

The system was fully implemented in October and since then the city has been archiving data on response times, explained Ryan Saville, associate vice president of Transcore. The beauty of the centralised system from Transcore is that it is an add-on to traffic management systems and services which the company has been providing to San Jose since the early 1990s.

This has meant the city didn’t need extra physical equipment at intersections. Traditional equipment pre-empts the vehicle but it is done on an intersection-by-intersection basis. Before implementation of the CEVP passing through an intersection added between 7 seconds and 22 seconds to passage times.

After the centralised system was set up, passing through a CEVP intersection added only 1 second to 8 seconds.

Overall, the CEVP system appeared to save on average 5 seconds to 7 seconds in travel time per intersection passed through. With the average emergency vehicle trip passing through four intersections, a average of 20 seconds to 28 seconds has been saved per trip.

The city and Transcore note that based on prior research, 24 seconds saved can lead to a 1% to 2% reduction in the mortality rate for heart attack victims.

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