Surrey, British Columbia, deploys Opticom emergency preemption solution

Global Traffic Technologies Canada has contracted with the City of Surrey in British Columbia, Canada for the implementation of its Opticom traffic preemption solution, which works alongside intersection controllers to help ensure emergency vehicles can move through intersections rapidly and safely.

When an emergency vehicle needs to navigate an intersection, the Opticom Emergency Vehicle Preemption (EVP) system on-board the emergency vehicle sends a request to the intersection’s controller ahead of its arrival, turning the light green and clearing a path to enable the vehicle’s safe passage. In Surrey, the EVP system has been deployed to 90 of the city’s busiest intersections.

Surrey is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada, and the fastest growing city in metropolitan Vancouver. Its population of over 450,000 citizens is comprised of people from a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds. The city itself is made up of six ‘town centres’: Fleetwood, Whalley/City Centre (North Surrey), Guildford, Newton, Cloverdale and South Surrey.

GTT’s President Doug Roberts said, “We are very happy to be working with the city of Surrey and its emergency services. Our system is helping to improve operational safety, reduce travel time to emergencies and increase the safety of both the public and emergency personnel.”