Opticom

[KnightFox]

Who's city has these systems?

For those who are new to these, Opticom, made by 3M, is a controller device made to switch traffic lights to red and give the responding Emergency vehicle the right-of-way thru an intersection by giving it the green light in order to shorten response time and keep the public safe. They use a special Infared strobe in which a sensor on the mast (shown below) picks it up and interupts the Traffic light controller's normal pattern and put it in a Preemption sequence (which was explained a little bit ago).

Currently, LaVale Vol. Fire Co. is experimenting with the technology and Cumberland is debating about it.

Below is a picture of the mast sensor, note some of these have lights on them to signal to the responding vehicle that the controller has gone into it's Preemption sequence.

[SoundOff]

We have some of these in my city but not on all the lights. They are mainly in the more busy areas such as near shopping centers but there are two intersections near my house that are equipped.

There is also a gated community north of me that also has these connected to their gates for emergency access.


Here's the intersection closest to my location. You can see the sensor on top to the right of the signal head.

[quiksmith10]

Awhile back, the only place I had ever seen them was in Indianapolis, down the majorly traveled thoroughfairs. Their system had the sensor that you indicated above but also had a slow blinking "strobe" light pointed each direction in the intersection. When the emergency vehicle tripped the sensor, it's light would turn green, causing all the other lights to turn red, and causing to light to blink, alerting drivers of the approaching emergency vehicle.

Today, I'm seeing these systems pop-up in many areas, not just major cities. I know that Frederick, MD (about 25 miles south of me), has them along Route 355 from just north of I-70, southbound a little ways. These do not have the light as I indicated above, but just the sensor.

It's a cool little piece of equipment if you ask me. It helps cut down on collisions between emergency vehicles and civilian vehicles, along with allowing them to get to situations faster.

[KnightFox]

Yeah, Depending upon who is installing it, and how busy the intersection is, some have no lights, some have the regular spot lights (either 1 or 2 of them) or they have some sort of distinct light (either a blue light or strobe).

As I stated, when the Opticom senses an approching Emergency vehicile, it trips the computer into a sequence called a Preemption Sequence, in which you and me explained already

The downside is these things cost 1000 dollars to equip the intersection alone.

[CABLEVision]

My town put in a system of opticom light controllers about two or so years ago now. They also have light activated street lights.

[Thunderin' Thunderbolt]

San Diego experimented with the visible-light old models (the ones that sensed extreme changes in light patterns from emergency vehicles) but the public found out that sometimes you can flash your headlights during the night and get the light to change. From there, San Diego tried a model that changes the light's state to completely red, so that the headlight trick wouldn't work, but emergency vehicles (which are allowed to go through red lights safely) could get through. Unfortunately they found that sometimes this got the vehicle stuck in the lane and would impede the response time even more, so they finally switched to the Opticom system. They do not use the notification lights, just the sensors.

But does anyone know why there are 2 little tubes sticking out? It seems like just 1 would suffice. And if someone built a high-output IR light, would it change the light to green or does the IR sensor and transmitter use a special pattern?

[KnightFox]

There was a artical of a man getting arrested for making the signals go green by using a light similar to the Opticom one. Basically, Opticom uses the same prinicple that is used with your TV remote. The infared signals are coded so that when the right light pattern is given, it trips the sensor into Preemption sequence

And as for your tubes question. Some do only have 1 tube. The tube is basically a sun visor so the sun doesn't impeed the sensors ability to detect the light pattern. Maybe it has 2 because one can be flipped around to face the other way so it can sense the light from both directions.

[siren_face2000]

We have a lot of them in Champaign, IL. They're almost at every intersection, and ours has that light that "Flashes" to alert drivers to an incoming emergency vehicle en route to an emergency.

[Thunderin' Thunderbolt]

Ah, I see... thanks KnightFox!
*applauds*

I wish we had a blue strobe light or something, I have seen them before and have wondered what the hell they were until now... my best guess was that it could have been used to signal that someone ran a red light or the signal is not working correctly, but now I know the real meaning.

I really do wish that San Diego had put in the strobes...

[KnightFox]

We have a lot of them in Champaign, IL. They're almost at every intersection, and ours has that light that "Flashes" to alert drivers to an incoming emergency vehicle en route to an emergency.

MAy I ask, is it a strobe or a spot light?