Can emergency personal change the traffic lights when they want to go through?

Question

I was told that Ambulances, Fire trucks and Police cars have a clicker or switch they can push when the light isn't the color they need it to be to go through the intersections. Is this true?

Answer 1

yes in some places they can. the light needs to be set up for this. Erie Pa. has this system and it is called rad o light

Answer 2

It called traffic signal preemption and depends on the city your in. Where I live the buses also have a way of manipulating the signals.

Answer 3

Like everyone else said - some cities have it, others don't.  My city has it on the busy intersections, but not on many of the others.

Answer 4

Yes they can. It is up to the city they are located. Some cities have an automatic light system, others go by the main office. In parts of Cleveland, Ohio they have sensors in the vehicles that make the lights change to green for the emergency  vehicle and the other cars have red lights. You can tell which cities have these, if you look at the lights, there are these bluish lights in the middle of the lines. They flash right before the lights change.

Answer 5

Yes, some lights.  Some emergency vehicles are equipped with what's called a MIrT (Mobile Infared Transmitter).  When the traffic light system is equipped with the proper receiver and control system, emergency vehicles can use the MIrT to change the lights in their favor.

Answer 6

No, they do not have a switch to change the lights.  Some of the newer stop lights have a sensor that picks up the strobe lights of emergency vehicles.  When we go through intersections we love to have the police department catch the light, meaning that they stop in the middle of the intersection to hold traffic, or we just have to be very careful and hope that people are paying attention.

Answer 7

It may be a strobe light flash pattern on the light bar that triggers sensors at the intersection.

Answer 8

Amazing how many 'no' answers there are when the answer is yes (sometimes).

Ok, not all cities have this capability but some have the ability to change the light. it is expensive and my friend who is an EMT was telling me about it.

The way it works as i understand it is there is a white stobe on the top of the vehicle that flashes in a sequence that signals the light to change. It is not instant to avoid accident but it does change it.

Answer 9

not really. but they can drive through the light if its an emergency cause there in a hurry.

Answer 10

No. The municipality can conrol the lights, but individual vehicles do not have that capacity.

Answer 11

Not to my knowledge, they are set to traffic.

Answer 12

No they cannot. That's why they have the sirens, you have to pull over and let them through even if their light is red and yours is green.

Answer 13

Yes they can. They are equipped with a strobe light and some traffic lights have a sensor that detects the strobe and changes the lights to stop traffic so the emergency vehicle can get through the intersection.

Answer 14

A lot of cities and towns use sensors that are placed above the traffic lights that sense flashing lights such as the ones used by amulances, fire trucks and police cars.  The sensors automatically change the light signal for the vehicle heading in that specific direction.

Answer 15

No it is not true at all....