New ‘green light’ traffic priority system for SCDF ambulances
Ambulances conveying emergency patients to Ng Teng Fong Hospital will be able to do so more quickly from mid-July, thanks to a new traffic priority system (TPS) the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) unveiled on July 4.
This new capability provides traffic signal priority for SCDF ambulances, giving them a “green light” path to the hospital, whereas previously, the vehicles had to run red lights or would be stuck in traffic at junctions near hospitals.
With time savings of between 30 and 100 seconds per trip when the system was tested at Ng Teng Fong Hospital and Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, patient outcomes are expected to improve.
Ng Teng Fong Hospital will be the first hospital to have four TPS traffic junctions in its vicinity from July 15. The junctions are Boon Lay Way and Jurong Gateway Road; Jurong East Street 21 and Jurong Gateway Road; Toh Guan Road and Jurong Gateway Road; and Toh Guan Road and Boon Lay Way.
By the second quarter of 2025, TPS coverage will include Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Changi General Hospital and National University Hospital.
The remaining public hospitals – KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital, Singapore General Hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Woodlands Health Campus – will receive TPS coverage by the fourth quarter of 2025.
The TPS, co-developed by the SCDF, Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) and Land Transport Authority, is part of new innovations unveiled at SCDF’s Workplan Seminar 2024, held at Ngee Ann Polytechnic on July 4.
TPS uses an electronic transponder inside each ambulance to activate priority passage at traffic junctions near hospitals.
At these junctions, sensors known as road-side equipment are linked with traffic light controllers, which trigger traffic lights in favour of an approaching ambulance.
The sensors detect the in-vehicle transponder through radio waves and are activated as the ambulance approaches within 200m of a designated TPS traffic junction. Normal traffic operations resume after the ambulance crosses the junction.
While the TPS is designed to ease the “final mile” of SCDF ambulances conveying patients to hospitals, it also augments the “first mile” Hurry Call System, which gives priority to emergency vehicles leaving fire stations.
Personnel at a fire station can control the nearest traffic light junction.
SCDF’s Major Matthew Goh in operations development (infrastructure) told ST the speed of conveying patients to hospitals was a definite priority.
He said: “If it was up to us, ideally we would have the whole of Singapore covered by TPS... but that is definitely not possible. So we have to find a balance between traffic congestion and speeding up operations and conveyance.”
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