opticom

[emthill]

Here in spokane washington, they are are talking about giving all ambulances and fire trucks their own wave signal. So that they can change the red lights to green, but non EMS personal will not be able to use opticom cause it will not work. That will make it alot easier for us to go code through the city.

[n0ssb]

Unknown if your city has stop light cameras, Watch the opticom around those, may effect the opticom device mounted nearby one.Could present a hazard to emergency vehicles that rely on opticoms, such as fire and ems.

[emthill]

that is true, so thkank goodness that they are still deciding. What the opticom will do will give each EMS vechicle their own, radio wave and when they come to the light the opticom will reconize the signal, and hopefully give us safe passage.

[Richard B the EMT]

What I remember about opticon is, it is a strobe light flashing at about 10 flashes per second, or something like that.

Red light cameras flash twice, at roughly 1 second intervals.

With that in mind, a red light camera shouldn't have any effect on the Opticon system. (Emphasis, SHOULDN'T, but what do I know to specifics on this one?)

[Richard B the EMT]

Speaking of the red light cameras, there's one 2 blocks from me. I wouldn't say the strobe light is bright, but the ISS (International Space Station) crew reportedly saw the flash.

[EMDP2081]

Forgive me for bringing life back to an old thread, but i am going to share my thoughts on Opticom, because nearly every city in Minnesota has since it is a 3M (Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing) Product .

Opticom is a tool, just like a cardiac monitor. You treat the patient not the monitor. Opticom is a dangerous tool when applied incorrectly. it doesnt allow you any special privileges or permissions except to have the light cycle once the receiver activates. It is commonly thought that when you get a solid white light back from the intersection that you "own" it, but a feature of Opticom is Priority levels. I know in MN, state troopers have the highest level of priority, then cops then newtons laws come into play meaning that fire trucks have a lot more inertia so they will get priority over an ambulance. This could result in you "losing" control of that intersection, so you are taught to continue to clear the intersection just like you would if you didnt have a preemption device.

In Rochester, we use a newer version of the opticom system called TOMAR which gives every vehicle in the city a different flash pattern that is registered and recognized by a central database owned by the City. This is beneficial in that the administrators know who went through what intersection, which direction and at what time. It also is a safety net in that if a squad car gets stolen and is running through the city code 3, they can track where the car is. The city also has the ability to lock a vehicle of of the system.

Overall, i think it is a good tool that does reduce response times slightly, but you needs to be more vigilant of your emergent driving practices if you work in an area with Opticom...

[Don1977]

We have a town here in Pittsburgh area (Monroeville) that has those, useful, especially when i found out that the strobes lights on two of our trucks sets them off!

[jmp6753]

We have them here is Clark Co (WA) and they are great. They are set up on a priority type system so that the bigger the rig, ladder truck or water tender gets the green light should two rigs approach the same intersection at the same time.