When lights and sirens are activated, drivers of fire trucks and ambulances in Chesterfield and Henrico counties have equipment that can turn traffic lights from red to green as they respond to emergencies.

The bottom line: Safer and smoother travel on congested streets, say officials in both counties, which began making the equipment standard in 2000.

Not so in Richmond, which has far more traffic lights and more emergency calls.

Chip Decker, chief executive officer of the Richmond Ambulance Authority, has been advocating for a traffic pre-emption system for emergency vehicles every since he took charge in 2009.

As a result, first responder vehicles often must wait behind idling vehicles for a light to change during busy travel times, and even when a lane is clear, it can be stop-and-go as state law requires all emergency vehicles to pause at red lights to ensure intersections are clear before proceeding.

That might change.

City Hall is planning to link into a federally funded Smart Cities initiative that is designed integrate the city’s traffic lights with a regional automated vehicle location (AVL) systems that will change traffic lights for emergency vehicles, buses and other public vehicles equipped with AVL.

The project was listed in the 2021-22 capital budget and was supposed to be supported with $1.7 million in federal funds, though as yet there is no public sign that the project is advancing.

City officials as well as members of City Council have not responded to queries about the project whose funding is to pay for software and AVL equipment.

Mr. Decker said he had participated in discussions on this system, but was unaware it was included in last year’s capital budget.

He expressed disappointment that the wording in the budget book did not explicitly reference ambulances or police cars and that RAA has not received any information on the status of the project.

When complete, the budget book states, the system would create computer links between the traffic lights, GRTC’s AVL system and the Richmond Fire Department’s central AVL system.

This would be a “next generation” system that could identify the location of AVL vehicles and based on their location, plot a best route and pre-empt traffic lights on that route during emergency responses.

Current systems like those in the counties mount infrared beams in vehicles which transmit to receivers on traffic lights that enable the lights to change. The new system is expected to be faster as lights could be changed along the route before the vehicle arrives.

According to information budget book, once the system goes live, it is expected to improve emergency response times and increase safety.

The real question mark is whether the system will go live anytime soon.

The system has been under discussion since 2013, the Free Press was told, and has become possible with a federally funded effort to create “intelligent” traffic lights that are linked to a a computerized control center.

According to Public Works, about 400 intersections with traffic lights have already been linked to a central traffic control computer, with a current project underway to link traffic lights at 55 additional intersections. Expected to be completed next year, this development will mean that 95 percent of the 480 city intersections with traffic lights would be converted, with the remaining 25 intersections expected to be integrated into the traffic control center within a year or two after that.

The 2022-23 capital budget indicated that Richmond now had the funding to continue linking traffic lights at additional intersections into the system.

As in the neighboring counties, fire trucks are the priority.

As in Richmond, neither Chesterfield nor Henrico equip police cruisers with the infra-red equipment to change lights.

Henrico does equip some motorcycles with the equipment for use in escorting funeral processions, parades and similar traffic-clogging operations.

Richmond police officer Brendan Leavy, president of the Richmond Coalition of Police, said his organization is taking a wait-and-see approach on having AVL equipment in city police cars.

“The Fire Department is looking into that,” Officer Leavy stated. “If it works for them and lessens accidents with public safety vehicles, then I’d be all for it.”