Dynamic Prioritization of Emergency Vehicles For Self-Organizing Traffic using VTL+EV *

Abstract: Cooperative vehicular technology in recent times has aided in realizing some state-of-art technologies like autonomous driving. Effective and efficient prioritization of emergency vehicles (EVs) using cooperative vehicular technology can undoubtedly aid in saving property and lives. Contemporary EV prioritization, called preemption, is highly dependent on existing traffic infrastructure. Accessing crucial decision parameters for preemption like speed, position and acceleration data in real-time is almost impossible in current systems. The connected vehicle can provide such data in real-time, which makes EV preemption more responsive and effective. Also, autonomous vehicles can help in optimizing the timing in traffic phases and minimize human-related loss like higher headway times and inconsistent inter-vehicle spacing when following each other. In this paper, we introduce self-coordinating a decentralized traffic control system termed as Virtual Traffic Light plus for Emergency Vehicle (VTL+EV) to prioritize EVs in an intersection. The proposed system can expedite EVs movement through intersections and impose minimal waiting time for ordinary vehicles. The VTL+EV algorithm also can improve overall throughput making an intersection more efficient.