Investigating the proactive avoidance of pre-emption conflicts with emergency vehicle signal pre-emption and route selection integration

Abstract

The study aims to improve average emergency vehicle (EV) response times by proactivelyavoiding pre-emption conflicts by integrating emergency vehicle signal pre-emption (EVSP)and route selection. Pre-emption in this work means to anticipate an emergency vehicleapproaching a signalled intersection, and attempting to ensure it is provided with right ofway. While literature highlights the success of EVSP strategies, particularly when integratedwith route selection, few strategies consider pre-emption conflicts that can cause delays toEVs. An EVSP and route selection strategy capable of proactively avoiding pre-emptionconflicts was subsequently proposed in this study. Using simulation modelling, the twostrategies were compared in a series of carefully constructed experimental runs. To testthe robustness of the proposed strategy, each experimental run was configured accordingto a unique combination of variables. It was empirically observed that, while not robustagainst these variables, the proposed strategy could perform equally well or better than thereference strategy (when considering average EV response times) in most instances. Thisindicates that an EVSP and route selection strategy capable of proactively anticipating andattempting to avoid pre-emption conflicts is a promising approach to reducing the responsetimes of EVs.