The “Firsts” and “Bests” of Government Innovation

The Korean Government will accredit the “Firsts” of our innovations that contributed to the public’s comfort and safety, and select the “Best” cases of government innovation to spread as examples to our many institutions.

The First

First in Korea Priority Signaling for Emergency Vehicles.

Suwon City Office
2023-12-29

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In 2020, the City of Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, introduced the nation’s first ‘Priority Signaling System for Emergency Vehicles’.

Splitting Traffic with Signaling, holding onto Life in the Golden Hour!

Content

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‘An ambulance, running through an intersection with priority signaling ⓒ Suwon City

√ Overview

√ The Birth of a System

√ Accomplishments and expansion

■ A Safety Innovation for Emergency Patients and Paramedics

The priority signaling system for emergency vehicles is designed to automatically change lights to green when emergency vehicles including ambulances with emergency patients are entering intersections, made possible by the Integrated Safety Center tracking vehicle locations through GPS.

The City of Suwon, Gyeonggi Province established on January 20th , 2020, for the first time in Korea, and has since operated, a ‘center-based’ priority signaling system for emergency vehicles in all areas of the city.

Utilizing this system, as soon as an emergency situation is registered to the emergency safety center, the regional municipality’s central control center can identify and provide an ideal route to emergency vehicles. Furthermore, by predicting when emergency vehicles are expected to pass an intersection in their path and providing green light signaling, it can assist in the rapid passage of emergency vehicles.

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■ Acquiring a Fast and Safe Path for Emergency Vehicles.

‘Priority Signaling for Emergency Vehicles’, responsible for guaranteeing the golden hour of emergencies, is currently operated by using either the ‘on-site control method’ or ‘center-connected method’

※ The ‘on-site control method’ was first implemented by the City of Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, in 2017.

However, the existing ‘on-site control method’ required the installation of not just signal controllers, but also vehicle transmitters and wireless transceiver stations at each intersection, which would have led to a budget of more than 30 billion won if applied to Suwon.

For cost reduction and operational efficiency, the City of Suwon actively pushed for a ‘center-connected method (Central control method)’, that had the Suwon Integrated Safety Center control the signaling system of all intersections within the path of emergency vehicles. After a total of 400 million Won in budgets and 7 months of development, the city of Suwon, on January 20th , 2020, introduced Korea’s first priority signaling system for emergency vehicles that utilized a central ‘center-connected method’.

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Deputy team leader Lee, Byung-ho of the City Office of Suwon, who led the development of this system, introduced how the idea came to life, stating that he “thought problems for emergency vehicle systems could have a similar solution to how bus arrival times at bus stops could be calculated for passengers based on the location of buses”.

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■ Developing even further into a nationwide, broad-scale Priority Signaling System!

The ‘priority signaling system for emergency vehicles’ that began implementation for emergency ambulances at fire stations beginning January 2020, were later applied to police vehicles, leading to 1,827 accumulative cases of operation leading up to December 2022. Thanks to the introduction of the priority signaling system, the mean passage time for emergency vehicles maneuvering 1km was reduced by 56.3% from 3 minutes 20 seconds to 1 minute and 27 seconds.

The priority signaling system for emergency vehicles is an example of how recognition of an existing issue, such as emergency vehicle dispatch and patient transport delays from complicated and change-prone road conditions, could be transformed into a specific improvement of systems. It is an accomplishment coming from the close cooperation of the City government of Suwon, fire departments, the police, and various research institutions of traffic safety.

Building on this accomplishment, the system has increased speed for the transportation process of patients with time-sensitive conditions, such as severe trauma and acute myocardial infarctions, to medical facilities, greatly enhancing not just the protection of the public’s lives, but also the value of public safety.

The priority signaling system for emergency vehicles, first implemented in January, 2020 for emergency dispatch vehicles at fire stations, were later expanded and applied to fire trucks and police vehicles in August, 2021, leading to 1,827 total cases of operation leading up to December 2022.

In addition, the system was spread to 8 municipalities in the Gyeonggi Province, and 10 other areas around the nation, with several regions competing to introduce the system to their roads.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) and the National Fire Agency are in the process of test driving a system utilizing a combined form of the ‘on-site control method’ and the ‘central-control method’, and hopes to further develop the system into a nationwide ‘Wide-area Priority Signaling System for Emergency Vehicles’.

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