Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Volume 2013, Article ID 834976, 10 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/834976

Research Article
Design and Implementation of an Emergency
Vehicle Signal Preemption System Based on Cooperative
Vehicle-Infrastructure Technology

Yinsong Wang,1 Zhizhou Wu,1 Xiaoguang Yang,1 and Luoyi Huang1,2

1
Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Tongji University, 4800 Cao’an Road,
Shanghai 201804, China
2
DENSO (China) Investment Co., Ltd., No. 15, Lane 333, Zhujian Road, Shanghai 201107, China

Correspondence should be addressed to Zhizhou Wu; wuzhizhou@tongji.edu.cn

Received 19 August 2013; Revised 31 October 2013; Accepted 14 November 2013

Academic Editor: Wuhong Wang

Copyright © 2013 Yinsong Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Emergency vehicle is an important part of traffic flow. The efficiency, reliability, and safety of emergency vehicle operations dropped
due to increasing traffic congestion. With the advancement of the wireless communication technologies and the development of
the vehicle-to-vehicle (v2v) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (v2i) systems, called Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure System (CVIS),
there is an opportunity to provide appropriate traffic signal preemption for emergency vehicle based on real-ime emergency vehicle
data, traffic volume data, and traffic signal timings. This paper describes the design and implementation of an Emergency Vehicle
Signal Preemption System (TJ-EVSP) in CVIS environment. The system function, system architecture, and operation strategies
were presented. Then, the system was deployed and validated at two adjacent intersections in Taicang City, Jiangsu Province, China.
Results show that the proposed system can improve the efficiency of emergency vehicle operations with less waste of traffic resources.

1. Introduction often not be aware of the warning information being emitted

The efficiency, reliability, and safety of emergency vehicle
operations are critical for saving lives and reducing property
losses. It is necessary to ensure that emergency vehicles can
respond to emergency calls for an incident with a minimum
delay when the traffic is congested.
Traffic signal control is an effective method to regu-
late traffic flow and improve traffic safety, which can also
effectively reduce the traffic congestion [1]. However, traffic
signal control sometimes results in some delay of emergency
vehicles. For example, considering a situation that a long
queue of normal vehicles blocking the way during red light,
emergency vehicles might not move easily though they are
permitted to cross the intersection against a traffic signal.
Moreover, due to some distractions such as road noise, audio
systems, and hearing impairment, although the emergency
vehicle can alert other drivers that it intends to cross the inter-
section by warning siren and flashing lights, other drivers will
by the approaching emergency vehicles, thus resulting in a
dangerous situation. In general, emergency vehicle delay and
safety are main concerns at intersections; it is necessary to
provide the emergency vehicles with preemption signal in
traffic control.
With the rapid development of information and commu-
nication technologies, advanced technology-founded design
in the implementation of traffic engineering has become an
effective way to address some problems that used to be expen-
sive or even impossible to solve. In a previous publication
[2], a proof of concept for a prototype of Tongji Cooper-
ative Vehicle-Infrastructure System (TJ-CVIS) developed at
the University of Tongji was presented, which provides a
vehicle capable of communication with other vehicles and
infrastructure. In this paper, a Tongji Emergency Vehicle
Signal Preemption System (TJ-EVSP) is proposed, which is
derived from the four-year project (12/2009–12/2013) of TJ-
CVIS supported by the Chinese Government.
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows:
Section 2 reviews the research and implementation of Coop-
erative Vehicle-Infrastructure System (CVIS) technology and
emergency vehicle signal preemption system around the
world. Section 3 introduces the architecture of TJ-EVSP,
including the hardware and software architectures. Section 4
describes the operation strategies of TJ-EVSP, including
Red Truncation and Green Locking. Section 5 evaluates the
proposed TJ-EVSP through field experiments conducted in
a real-traffic environment in Taicang city, Jiangsu Province,
China. Section 6 provides the conclusion and recommenda-
tions for future research.
2. Literature Review
The failure of the traveling public to yield the right-of-way
to the approaching emergency vehicles at intersection is the
common cause of delay and emergency vehicle crashes [3,
4]. Previous works of emergency vehicle priority operation
mainly focused on Emergency Vehicle Alert System (EVAS)
and Emergency Vehicle Preemption (EVP).
EVAS was developed to provide additional time for the
traveling public to react appropriately in order to avoid
conflicts with emergency vehicles at urban intersections; the
evaluation of an EVAS in the City of Dearborn Heights,
Michigan, showed that driver compliance to emergency
vehicle warning increased from 76.6 percent to 97.4 percent
after the installation of EVAS [5].
EVP is another approach to improve the efficiency and
reliability of emergency vehicles. For an approaching emer-
gency vehicle, a green signal is given to provide safe passage
through a signalized intersection during emergency runs. In
the 1970s–1980s, the traffic signal preemption systems for fire
trucks were deployed in Liverpool and Northampton, UK
[6, 7], reducing the travelling time by about 10%. Vincent
and Cooper [8] evaluated five types of signal priority rules,
including the combination of green light extending, red light
cutting off, and restoration rules at isolated intersection.
Since the single-intersection based strategy is limited by
local detection, Kwon and Kim [9, 10] proposed the route-
based signal preemption strategy and evaluated the strategy
by VISSIM simulation, which improved the efficiency of
emergency vehicle operation. In general, past research has
shown that EVP provides savings of up to 45 seconds in
intersection delay per run at high volume intersections and
average reductions of 14 to 23 percent in total emergency
vehicle response time [11].
Beside the aforementioned theoretical studies, several
EVAS and EVP systems were implemented around the world.
3 M Opticom Priority Control System [12] utilizes infrared
emitter and detector to detect the approaching emergency
vehicle, minimizing response time, and maximizing safety.
An Emergency Vehicle Intersection Early Warning System
(EViEWS) [13] was developed in the US, utilizing microwave
communication and variable message signs to enhance the
safety of emergency vehicle operations, and had begun instal-
lation of EVP and traffic control systems in Harris County,
Texas, in the year of 2008. The Japanese EVP system known
as Fast Emergency Vehicle Preemption System (FAST) [14]
realized two-way communication between vehicle and infras-
tructure by infrared detectors; the information of approach-
ing emergency vehicle can be transferred intersection by
intersection; thus, the downstream controller can adjust the
traffic signal to provide emergency vehicle with right-of-way
in advance. Other common traffic control systems such as
SCOOT [15] and SCATS [16] had also introduced EVP into
control strategies.
Although significant studies have focused on the emer-
gency vehicle operation, the past preemption method, espe-
cially traffic signal preemption for emergency vehicles, can-
not respond to the variation of traffic flow efficiently, due to
the limitation of the conventional techniques for traffic infor-
mation collection and communication. An effective timely
solution for emergency vehicle signal preemption en route
relies on immediate and high resolution data of the traffic
arrivals, which becomes increasingly available in recent years.
For example, Connected-Vehicle [17] in USA, Cooperative
Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems (CVIS) [18] in Europe, and
Vehicle Information and Communication System (VICS)
[19] in Japan have been launched and partly completed.
In this study, the proposed TJ-EVSP is derived from the
Tongji Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure System (TJ-CVIS)
developed at the University of Tongji, Shanghai, China [2].
Compared with past EVP researches, TJ-EVSP develops some
unique features which are summarized in Table 1.
3. System Architecture of TJ-EVSP
3.1. Overall System Architecture. TJ-EVSP is constructed at
Taicang City, Jiangsu Province, to develop EVP and EVAS
scenarios based on CVIS technology. Our system aims to
improve the emergency vehicle operation efficiency with less
traffic delay. From the viewpoint of structural mechanics, TJ-
EVSP consists of three layers: perception layer, interaction
layer, and application layer [20]. Figure 1 illustrates the overall
system architecture of TJ-EVSP.
The perception layer represents the physical layer, which
corresponds with Open System Interconnect (OSI) Layer 1.
The interaction layer represents the link layer, which contains
the communication protocols and other communication
technologies. The top layer-application layer includes soft-
ware development, field test, and validation. In this paper, the
applications of Signal Preemption, Emergency Warning, and
Guidance are deployed.
3.2. Hardware Architecture. The hardware system of TJ-EVSP
mainly consists of two components, On Board Unit (OBU)
and Road Side Unit (RSU).
3.2.1. OBU. The OBU is mainly composed of control proces-
sor, visual and audible user interface, GPS receiver, wireless
communication device, and antenna. Vehicles equipped with
the OBU will be wirelessly linked and exhibited 360-degree
awareness through communication with other vehicles.
Notebook, DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication)
devices, touchscreen, OBD (On Board Diagnostic) interface,
Advances in Mechanical Engineering 3

Signal preemption application: dynamic signal preemption, static signal preemption, etc.

Application layer Emergency warning application: overtaking warning, signal change-over warning, collision warning, etc.

Guidance application: optimal routing, intelligent speed adaptation, in-vehicle signal, etc.
Overall system architecture of TJ-EVSP

Interaction layer WAVE WiMax 3G RFID ···

Intelligent RSU Intelligent OBU for Intelligent OBU for

emergency vehicle traveling public

Traditional Traffic control

Perception layer OBU sensors RSU sensors GPS GIS
traffic detector facilities

Basic traffic information Extended traffic information based on TJ-EVSP

Driver Traffic Traffic Environmental EV Guidance Warning Preemption
behavior information facilities information information information information information

Figure 1: Overall system architecture of TJ-EVSP.

Table 1: Differences between past EVP researches and TJ-EVSP.

Past EVP researches TJ-EVSP

IEEE 802.11p (WAVE, Wireless Access Vehicular
Communication Infrared beacon or General Packet Radio Environment) and 3G (The 3rd Generation
technology Service (GPRS). Telecommunication) technologies are used in TJ-EVSP
with low latency and high reliability [23].
Active detection, the emergency vehicle can send the
Passive detection by loop detector or
Detection method turning direction, position and speed to the roadside
infrared beacon.
infrastructure at each intersection.
Model-based predictive green wave control
Signal control Dynamic signal change-over based on the real-time status
or fuzzy control, the signal phase rarely
preemption method of approaching emergency vehicle and traffic flow.
readjusts en route.
Traveling public In-vehicle audio and visual warning besides traditional
Variable message signs and warning siren.
warning method warning method.
Theoretical studies mainly utilized
simulation evaluation; CVIS based systems Deployed and applied in real-traffic sites in Taicang city,
Field test
are deployed in isolated test field or Jiangsu Province, China.
intersection in campus.

and so forth are installed inside the vehicle; the GPS receiver vehicle and the traveling public, determining whether a
and omnidirectional DSRC antennas are installed on the roof vehicle issuing a preemption request is within an allowed
of vehicle. Both the emergency vehicles and normal vehicles approach of the intersection, and determining when and
are equipped with the same OBU hardware. Some other how to adjust the signal phase. The control computer is
telemedicine equipments are also installed on the emergency located at the intersection and it can send command messages
vehicle and can share the 3G communication with OBU. The to control computers at other intersections by local area
architecture of OBU is shown in Figure 2(a). network. The signal controller can receive the signal change-
over command from the control computer and then adjust
3.2.2. RSU. The RSU consists mainly of a traffic signal the traffic light accordingly to provide the right-of-way for
controller, DSRC device, and control computer. Control com- the emergency vehicle en route. The architecture of OBU is
puter is used for monitoring the messages from emergency shown in Figure 2(b).
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Control
center

3G

3G device Inverter

Touch screen Computer

GPS satellite
Driver CAN interface GPS

DSRC GPS
DSRC antenna antenna
RSU/
other vehicle

DSRC device GPS receiver

Data flow
Power supply
(a) OBU architecture

RSU

A.C.
RJ45 Serial port
DSRC
Emergency vehicle Traffic lights
DSRC device Control computer Signal controller

(b) RSU architecture

Figure 2: Hardware architecture.

3.2.3. Wireless Technology. DSRC and 3G technologies are
both used in TJ-EVSP. Since TJ-EVSP is based on CVIS
environment, unlike some other communication systems,
CVIS requires a DSRC with very low latency (typically less
than 100 ms) and packet error rate (PER) (typically less than
5%). Thus, a communication protocol which supports these
strict requirements is required. IEEE 802.11p is considered
as the first choice of DSRC in TJ-EVSP, because it provides
low latency and supports data exchange between high-
speed vehicles and infrastructure. In addition, a WCDMA
(Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) based 3G service
is used to transmit information to control center.
3.3. Software Architecture. Both Linux and Windows plat-
forms are used in TJ-EVSP to develop applications. The
overall software architecture is shown in Figure 3.
Application of DSRC communication is implemented on
a Linux embedded platform. GPS, vehicle and radio data can
be obtained through peripheral interfaces. Embedded Linux
is mainly used to process underlying data, and the Windows
OS is used to develop higher level applications such as guiding
application, signal preemption application, and emergency
warning application.
A map-based module is developed in Microsoft Visual
Studio under Windows platform using GMap.NET [21].
GMap.NET is a powerful, free, cross-platform, open source
NET control. We employ it to enable use routing, geocoding,
and maps from Google, Yahoo!, Bing, ArcGIS, and other
maps in Windows Forms and Presentation.
In TJ-EVSP, the message format of normal vehicle has
already been specified [2], which mainly includes the follow-
ing contents:
(i) GPS data (longitude, latitude, altitude);
(ii) GPS correction message;
(iii) vehicle ID;
Advances in Mechanical Engineering 5

Windows XP/Vista/7/8
Signal preemption Emergency warning
Guiding application
application application

Loop detector data

Communication/information integration platform

Application layer
Ethernet
Linux OS
VGA interface
DENSO WSU software services API
GPIO interface

Serial interface
Time/position Vehicle interface Radio
services services services
USB interface
System layer CAN BUS
RS232C

GPS Vehicle DSRC

receiver interface
Access layer

Figure 3: Overall software architecture.

(iv) traveling speed;
(v) current date and time.
For the emergency vehicle, traveling route and preemp-
tion request message are added into the message contents.
Considering that almost all the normal vehicles on the road
have not been equipped with the OBU of TJ-EVSP at present,
we introduced the loop detector data into the TJ-EVSP to
learn the traffic status of each intersection during emergency
runs.
4. Operation Strategies of TJ-EVSP
In CVIS environment, immediate and high resolution data
of vehicle’s position, heading and velocity can be utilized to
determine when and how to adjust the signal phase. In this
section, the operation strategies of TJ-EVSP including Red
Truncation and Green Locking are introduced.
4.1. Dynamic Signal Preemption Procedure. In TJ-EVSP, the
OBU on emergency vehicle is always emitting the emergency
preemption request en route. The software on RSU processes
the request and provides a priority green light through nor-
mal traffic operations for the approaching emergency vehicle.
The preemption procedure should subject to the particular
situation of each emergency vehicle running. Let 𝑇𝐸 represent
the expected travel time of EV from current position to the
intersection, and let 𝑇𝑄 represent the estimated clearance
time of the normal vehicles (stopped or in a continuous
flow) in front of EV. To ensure that EV will get through
the intersection with nonstop and no speed decrease, and
to avoid too much green loss at the same time, the ideal
relationship of 𝑇𝐸 and 𝑇𝑄 should subject to the following
equation:
𝑇𝐸 = 𝑇𝑄 + 𝑡𝜀 .
In (1), 𝑡𝜀 indicates the transitional period time, which
consists of traffic signal switch time and a headway in a free-
flow condition. In TJ-EVSP, if the traffic signal needs to be
switched, 𝑡𝜀 is assigned as 9 seconds, consisting of yellow-
flash (3 seconds), all-red time (3 seconds), and time headway
(3 seconds). To facilitate the presentation, all definitions and
notations used hereafter are summarized below:
𝐿 𝐸 : EV distance to intersection when request
received;
𝑉𝐸 : expected speed of EV, subject to the road level;
𝑁: number of normal vehicles in front of EV;
𝑉𝑄: queue tail travel speed;
𝐿 𝑄: distance from stop line to queue tail;
𝑑: average spacing of a vehicle occupied in a queue;
Δ𝑡: extra time before preemption command executed;
𝑇min : minimum time length for signal phase insertion,
subject to the minimum signal cycle of particular
intersection;
𝑇max : upper boundary value of time for signal phase
insertion, subject to the conventional signal cycle of
particular intersection;
𝐶: signal cycle;
𝑖
𝐶min : minimum length of Stage 𝑖 in the signal cycle;
𝑖
𝐶ins : time length of Stage 𝑖 in the inserted signal cycle;
𝑡𝑖 : accumulated time from start of Stage 𝑖 in current
cycle;
𝑓(𝑁): function for determining 𝑇𝑄.
The schematic representation of signal preemption deter-
(1) mining is shown in Figure 4.
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

EV request Considering that not all normal vehicles on road are

received/updated equipped with OBU, the status of each vehicle in front of
EV cannot be collected timely. We conservatively hypothesize
that all the vehicles in front of EV are stopped, waiting in a
TE = L E /VE
queue. Admittedly, when the queue begins moving forward,
TQ = f(N) the acceleration process of each vehicle varies with queue
Δt = TE − TQ − t𝜀 position, vehicle type, and driving behavior. To simplify the
acceleration model of the queue, the queue tail travel speed,
𝑉𝑄 is applied here. In addition, the distance from stop line to
N
N queue tail, 𝐿 𝑄 is introduced as instrumental variable:
Current signal? Red Δt ⩽ 0
𝐿 𝑄 = 𝑑 ⋅ 𝑁. (4)
Green Y
In (4), 𝑑 indicates the average spacing that a vehicle
Red truncation
Δt ⩾ Tmin N execute occupies in a queue. We also sampled the space in Taicang
City, considering the ratio of large vehicle and assigned
Y the statistic value (8 m) to 𝑑 in system implementation. In
different cities, the average spacing 𝑑 may vary with the major
Δt ⩽ Tmax Green locking
execute type of vehicle, large vehicle ratio, and driving behaviors.
Consequently, Figure 6 describes the relationship
Y between 𝐿 𝑄 and 𝑉𝑄 on the basis of vehicle probe data we
Phase insertion collected by TJ-EVSP OBU in real-traffic field test. “Speed” in
execute Figure 6 shows the travel speed of the queue tail vehicle since
starting up, until passing the stop line. In the implementation
of TJ-EVSP, we use (5) to determine 𝑉𝑄 and then calculate
Signal restoration 𝑇𝑄 and Δ𝑡:
𝑉𝑄 = 1.0052 ln (𝐿 𝑄) + 0.6131, (5)
Figure 4: Decision tree of signal preemption procedure.
𝐿𝑄 𝑑⋅𝑁
𝑇𝑄 = 𝑓 (𝑁) = = , (6)
𝑉𝑄 1.0052 ln (𝑑 ⋅ 𝑁) + 0.6131
4.2. Red Truncation Strategy. Since EV is permitted to cross
an intersection against traffic signal, the major factor that is Δ𝑡 = 𝑇𝐸 − 𝑇𝑄 − 𝑡𝜀 . (7)
obstructing the passage of EV is not the red light, but the
normal vehicles waiting at intersection for green light. As If Δ𝑡 ≤ 0, Red Truncation will be executed immediately,
shown in Figure 5(a), although EV can meet a green signal or the preemption command will be executed after time Δ𝑡,
when crossing the intersection, EV may decelerate due to the unless the traffic status changes.
queue. If the current signal for the approaching EV is red, it
is necessary to give an early green signal to clear the waiting 4.3. Phase Insertion and Green Locking Strategy. Beside Red
vehicles in front of EV (Figure 5(b)). Too early or too late to Truncation, if the current signal for EV approaching direction
execute Red Truncation command will result in green loss is green, it may need to be locked until EV crosses the
(Figure 5(c)) or speed decrease of EV (Figure 5(d)). intersection. On the other hand, irrational Green Locking
According to the preemption procedure shown in may result in bad influence to the traveling public. Figure 7(a)
Figure 4, the first step is to calculate 𝑇𝐸 : indicates the scenario of irrational Green Locking, which
locked the green light too early and results in too much green
𝐿𝐸 loss. Hence, inserting a phase before Green Locking is taken
𝑇𝐸 = . (2)
𝑉𝐸 into account (Figure 7(b)).
For a given cycle, the strategy when to lock the current
When deploying TJ-EVSP in Taicang City, we sampled signal should depend on the status of approaching EV,
and analyzed the ambulance speed in different road condi- traffic flow, and current signal. According to the preemption
tions. 𝑉𝐸 is determined by: procedure shown in Figure 4, threshold value 𝑇min and 𝑇max
for signal phase insertion are introduced (e.g., current signal
number of lanes: 1 2 ≥3 stage index: 𝑘):
𝑉𝐸 (km/h): 40 60 80 𝑖
𝑇min = ∑ 𝐶min 𝑘
− Min (𝑡𝑘 , 𝐶min ),
(8)
The next step is to estimate the clearance time of normal 𝑇max = 𝐶 − 𝑡𝑘 .
vehicles in front of EV:
If Δ𝑡 ≤ 𝑇min , it indicates that the extra time is not
𝑇𝑄 = 𝑓 (𝑁) . (3) enough for phase insertion, current signal should be locked
Advances in Mechanical Engineering 7

Distance Distance

Δt

Preemption phase
Original phase Original phase

Qtail Qtail

EV EV
Request received Time Request received Time

Trajectory of queue tail Trajectory of queue tail

Trajectory of EV Trajectory of EV
Expected trajectory of EV
(a) No preemption executed (b) Appropriate preemption executed
Distance Distance

Δt Δt
Green loss

Preemption phase Preemption phase

Original phase Original phase

Qtail Qtail
Speed decrease

EV EV

Request received Time Request received Time

Trajectory of queue tail Trajectory of queue tail

Trajectory of EV Trajectory of EV
(c) Preemption executed too early (d) Preemption executed too late

Figure 5: Red truncation scenarios.

immediately until EV crosses the intersection; if Δ𝑡 ≥ 𝑇max , it The inserted time length for other stage is
indicates that EV is too far to make a decision, and the system
will stay in routine operation and waiting for updated traffic 𝑖
data; if Δ𝑡 is between 𝑇min and 𝑇max , phase insertion should 𝑖 𝐶min ⋅ Δ𝑡
𝐶ins = , (𝑖 ≠ 𝑘) . (10)
be executed before locking the green light. The extra time will 𝑇min
be allocated to each signal stage in proportion.
The remaining time length for current stage is
4.4. Other Strategies
4.4.1. Signal Restoration. Once EV has crossed the intersec-
𝑘 𝐶𝑘 ⋅ Δ𝑡 tion, a signal restoration message will be sent from EV to RSU.
𝐶ins = max (0, min − 𝑡𝑘 ) . (9)
𝑇min For a signal control cycle with 𝑛 stages, if the traffic signal
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

7 Table 2: Field test results: data comparison (15 runs for each
6 scenario).
Speed (m/s)

5
4
3 St Dev. Average Average
Average Average
2 y = 1.0052 ln(x) + 0.6131 Test of E-GAP E-GAP
1 R2 = 0.6563 travel speed
scenario Speed of Xianfu of Xinhua
0 time (s) (km/h)
(km/s) Road(s) Road(s)
0 20 40 60 80 100
Queue length (m) TJ-EVSP 65.1 26.54 4.72 5.4 4.6
NP 107.7 14.98 14.51 N/A N/A
Figure 6: 𝐿 𝑄-𝑉𝑄 relationship.
SP100 75.0 23.08 12.54 2.2 2.3
SP300 62.0 27.87 6.88 15.3 13.4

before preemption is in Stage 𝑖 and the preemption signal is in

Stage 𝑘, the signal restoration procedure is described as below.
Step 1. Restoration message received, go to Step 2.
Step 2. Stage 𝑘 keeps running, 𝑡𝑘 = 𝑡𝑘 + 1, go to Step 3.
𝑘
Step 3. If 𝑡𝑘 ≥ 𝐶min , go to Step 4; else go to Step 2.
Step 4. Signal change to Stage 𝑖+1 (or Stage 1 in case of 𝑖 = 𝑛),
restoration completed.
4.4.2. Multiintersections Preemption. In TJ-EVSP, we also
took multiintersections preemption into account to avoid
spillback between two adjacent intersections. In the mul-
tiintersections preemption scenario, the RSUs of adjacent
intersections 𝑗 and 𝑗 + 1 are connected, and they can share
the data of EV and traffic volume. Before EV enters the road
section between intersections 𝑗 and 𝑗 + 1, the estimated
clearance time of the normal vehicles for intersection 𝑗 + 1
is calculated by
𝑗+1
𝑇𝑄 = 𝑓 (𝑁𝑗 ⋅ 𝜂𝑗 + 𝑁𝑗+1 ) .
In (11), 𝜂𝑗 indicates the turning proportion on EV head-
ing. By following the procedure shown in Figure 4, TJ-EVSP
can provide a priority signal with EV at intersection 𝑗 + 1 in
advance.
5. Field Test and Validation
In this section, basic characteristic tests about performance
of DSRC and GPS are discussed referring to [2], and then
the field test of TJ-EVSP in the Taicang City on active public
roadways is introduced.
5.1. Basic Characteristics. In a CVIS based emergency vehicle
preemption scenario, real time exchange is necessary since
high-speed vehicles will travel long distances in a short time.
Data monitoring requires a DSRC with very low latency
(typically less than 100 ms), packet loss rate (PLR), and packet
error rate (PER) (typically less than 5%). Previous study [2]
has indicated that communication in TJ-EVSP meets the
basic requirements. It is also shown to support low latency
and high reliability. The features discussed above indicate that
the communication is qualified to be applied in the CVIS-
based emergency vehicle preemption.
Also in Yang et al. [2], the field test results of communica-
tion performance and position performance indicate that TJ-
EVSP can provide a lane-level position service for the vehicle
and control system with high message transfer reliability,
which enable the feasibility of preemption strategies.
5.2. Field Test in Real Traffic
5.2.1. Field Test Implementation. Field test of TJ-EVSP was
conducted on Changchun Road in Taicang City, which
contains two signalized intersection shown in Figure 8. The
test route is 670 meters long with one lane in each direction.
The original signal control plans for both intersections are the
same, containing two stages (North-South: 40 s, East-West:
30 s) with no offset.
We compared the proposed dynamic signal preemption
strategies with the scenarios of nonpreemption and static
preemption strategy. The static preemption strategy is widely
utilized in past studies [2, 12, 22], in which EV and the signal
controller are able to exchange data timely, buy only the
(11) distance from EV to intersection is used to determine the
execution of Red Truncation or Green Extension. In our field
test, we had set 300 meters and 100 meters as threshold value
of static preemption.
5.2.2. Test Results. Field tests were carried out in the same
period of a day between 20 : 00 and 21 : 00. The EV’s trajectory,
travel time, and speed were recorded. Moreover, in order to
analyze the green loss of each strategy, the headway between
EV and the vehicle in front of EV at stop line was recorded as
E-GAP manually. The test results of the proposed dynamic
signal preemption (TJ-EVSP), nonpreemption (NP), static
signal preemption at 100 m (SP100), and static signal pre-
emption at 300 m (SP300) were compared in Figure 9 and
Table 2.
From Figure 9 and Table 2, it is obvious that TJ-EVSP can
significantly decrease travel time compared to the situation of
NP. In NP situation, the average travel time is 107.7 seconds.
When the vehicle is equipped with OBU to communicate
with signal controller and achieve signal preemption, the
average travel time is 65.1 seconds which is a decrease of
39.2%. The standard deviation of EV speed in TJ-EVSP is
smaller than that in NP. It indicates that TJ-EVSP can reduce
the speed fluctuation of EV, which is of great significance to
onboard medical treatment of ambulance.
Advances in Mechanical Engineering 9

Distance Distance

Minimum cycle
Green loss

Preemption phase Preemption phase

Original phase Original phase

Qtail Qtail

EV EV
Request received Time Request Green Time
(green locked) received locked

Trajectory of queue tail Trajectory of queue tail

Trajectory of EV Trajectory of EV
Expected trajectory of EV Expected trajectory of EV

(a) Green loss in green locking (b) Phase insertion before green locking

Figure 7: Green locking scenarios.

500
N
Distance to Xinhua Road (m)

400
Ch

300
an
gc

540 m
hu

ad
n

Ro
Ro

fu 200
ian
ad

X
ad
Ro 1st intersection
ua 100
nh
Xi
130 m
2nd
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130
Time (s)
Test route
Loop detector TJ-EVSP SP100
Signalized intersection with TJ-EVSP RSU NP SP300

Figure 8: Field test implementation in Taicang city. Figure 9: Field test results: typical EV trajectory of each scenario.

From the test result we can also conclude that the
proposed dynamic signal preemption in TJ-EVSP is superior
to static signal preemption. In Figure 9, when preemption was
executing at Xianfu Road (the first intersection), the distance
from EV to the intersection is 244 meters, while the distance
to Xinhua Road (the second intersection) in the same trials
is 296 meters. And the EV had passed the intersections with
few speed decreases and less headway to the front vehicles
(E-GAP). Compared to SP100, it is found that due to the late
preemption execution of SP100, emergency vehicle may be
delayed by the remaining vehicles in front of it. At the same
time, although SP300 has an equal efficiency compared with
TJ-EVSP, it sometimes executes the preemption command
too early, resulting in more green loss compare to TJ-EVSP.
Therefore, it is evident that TJ-EVSP does lead to reduc-
tion of EV travel time.
6. Conclusion and Future Work
This paper introduced an emergency vehicle signal preemp-
tion system based on CVIS (TJ-EVSP) and has been applied
to real traffic in Taicang City, China. The system architecture
10
and operation strategies were presented. The field test results
showed that TJ-EVSP has the ability to improve the efficiency
of emergency vehicle operations.
There are several advantages in TJ-EVSP.
(1) WAVE protocol is used to improve the performance
of DSRC in communication latency and distance,
enabling better strategies for emergency vehicle pre-
emption.
(2) Dynamic signal preemption strategies are developed
to improve the efficiency of emergency vehicle oper-
ations with less waste of traffic resources.
(3) Field tests on real city streets were conducted to
validate the availability of our system.
For future work, first, the effect of in-vehicle warning
needs to be tested. Second, when new vehicles delivered from
automobile manufacturers are all equipped with advanced
OBU, it is also important to develop the signal preemption
strategies and conventional traffic control strategies by using
the data from public OBUs.
Acknowledgments
TJ-EVSP is supported in part by the Ministry of Science and
Technology of China (2011AA110404), the China Scholarship
Council (CSC), and DENSO Corporation.
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