Every Emergency vehicle would be equiped with a light remote beacon which would send out a signal that would interupt any street light in a certain radius of them. The street lights would turn to flashing. [meaning all flashing, red, yellow, and green]. then when the signal got far enough away the lights would resume where they left off. Thus there would not be any excuses from the drivers that insist on not getting out of the way or yielding of not hearing/seeing the emergency vehicles. And also there would not be a huge build up on the side that just missed their turn because they had to yield. The down side to this is that the intersections that do not have street lights would still have the problem of non-yielding drivers.
-- babyhawk, Dec 24 2003

I believe in some northern states the traffic lights will automatically change as to give the emergency vehicle the right of way. I seems the " lights would turn to flashing" approach may throw the intersections into chaos.
-- Letsbuildafort, Dec 24 2003


hhmmmmmm......maybe. what do the lights change to???
-- babyhawk, Dec 24 2003


They change as to give the vehicle the right of way, or change everything over to red. If ambulance is going in direction "A", then the lights change to give the ambulance the green light.
-- Letsbuildafort, Dec 24 2003


already exists in Canada.Emergency vehicles have an infrared device to change the lights in their favour as they approach.
-- python, Dec 24 2003


just goes to show that oklahoma sucks. sorry for the baked idea.....
-- babyhawk, Dec 24 2003


python - I thought that was the result of the strobe lights, is it not?
-- v0rtexx, Dec 25 2003


On second thoughts you may be correct vOtrexx.
-- python, Dec 25 2003


naaah, all the lights should go blue, which means 'look out for emergency vehicles and get out of their way'.
-- neilp, Dec 25 2003


baked. I have a friend in law enforcement here in minnesota and he showed me the system that changes the light in their favor.
-- dickity, Dec 25 2003



random, halfbakery