Many motorists have experienced the frustration of rush hour on Scudders Mill Road and Route 1 in Plainsboro. How emergency vehicles will cope with those jams when the new hospital opens is an even greater concern. As preparations are underway for the hospital’s opening in May, a new system is being installed to permit emergency vehicles to do what ordinary motorists only wish they could do — change the light in their favor as they approach the intersection.
The Opticon system will soon be functional at three intersections along Scudders Mill Road: Schalks Crossing Road, Campus Drive, and Dey Road. Opticon is used by emergency service vehicles nationwide to change traffic light signals as they approach an intersection. On three sides of a four-way intersection, the light will expedite its cycle from green to yellow to red, stopping regular traffic. The light the emergency vehicle is approaching would then change to green to allow safer crossing of the intersection.
Plainsboro Fire Chief Doug Vorp described the technical function of the six-inch black box that will go on six Plainsboro emergency vehicles. “It’s a small device mounted on the outside of the truck that emits an infrared signal that is picked up by a receiver located on a traffic light,” he said.
Vorp says the new hospital was part of the township’s considerations, but plans for Opticon formed three to four years ago, ahead of the hospital’s announced move to the area. The idea was brought forth because of the increased traffic in town, and Vorp highlights the need to respond to emergency calls “in as safe a fashion as possible.”
Plainsboro first looked into the system after “a number of near-miss accidents or almost accidents” at those three intersections, which Vorp says are among the most hazardous intersections that emergency services vehicles can travel through.
“It took time to make sure that this is something that would actually work for us and an enormous amount of time was spent trying to work its way through the county bureaucracy,” Vorp said. He added that installation is not fully completed but that “emitters have been installed on the different apparatuses while work at the intersections has continued.”
Once installation is done and all the red tape is cleared, Vorp said a testing and acceptance phase will start and notices will go out to the public. If all goes smoothly he expects the testing period to start in about a month.
“There’s still no target date. It’s still working its way through the bureaucratic process,” Vorp says.
In West Windsor, over the past year Opticon has been set up and is operational at three intersections: Penn Lyle Road and Clarksville, Meadow Road and Clarksville and Meadow Road and Bear Brook.
West Windsor Fire Chief Richard Glover said West Windsor has plans to have Opticon set up at Princeton-Hightstown Road at intersections with Rabbit Hill Road and Clarksville. Glover says he’s also in favor of getting the emitters installed on trucks at Station 43 in Dutch Neck. He said Opticon equipment is currently on four emergency vehicles (fire engines and rescue squad trucks).
And a similar Opticon system is expected to be part of the intersection of Harrison Street and Route 1, just south of the new hospital.
