The ambulance sector has won a Computable Award 2021 in the Care project category together with Be-Mobile and CityGIS with its innovative project 'Ambulances on the road safer by linking LSIV with C-ITS platform'. Thanks to this innovation, smart traffic lights (iVRIs) can give ambulances the green light, giving ambulances safe passage when they drive through an intersection. This is safer for the ambulance team and the patient, as well as for other road users. They are also warned in good time that an ambulance is approaching and can anticipate this. The project was the result of the 'Talking Traffic' partnership of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W).
Unique collaboration
The jury of the Computable Awards 2021 praised the fact that industry association Ambulancezorg Nederland has taken on such an extensive and technically difficult and complex project with so many stakeholders. The jury was enthusiastic about the good link with Talking Traffic and the integration of available iVRIs, because this lays the foundation for safer traffic and faster deployment of the ambulances throughout the country.
Ambulance care is innovative
At the end of October 2020, the members of the Ambulancezorg Nederland (AZN) sector association decided that all ambulance regions should connect to Talking Traffic via the sector's national ICT systems. Road safety was the main driver for this.
“I am proud that the good IT infrastructure of ambulance care has made it possible for the ambulance sector to connect to Talking Traffic with one link. The Computable Award is a nice confirmation and emphasizes how innovative ambulance care is. The ambulance sector is the first emergency service that connects to the Talking Traffic service on a national scale. A good development that promotes the safety of patients, our people and fellow road users and also contributes to the throughput of ambulances”.
Link
Be-Mobile is responsible for the construction and delivery of the C-ITS platform that enables communication between vehicles and iVRIs. The ambulance sector has now linked its own National Server Incidents & Vehicles (LSIV) to this platform, which has been updated by CityGIS and thus connects all ambulances to the Talking Traffic infrastructure in one go. When ambulances are driving urgently, the platform communicates vehicle positions to traffic lights so that the traffic lights 'know' that an ambulance is approaching and the lights then turn green. In this way, a green carpet is rolled out in front of the ambulance, as it were. In addition, other road users receive a warning via apps or suitable navigation systems, the so-called early warning, that an ambulance is approaching urgently.
Converting traffic lights to iVRI
The new link will gradually replace existing technology (such as Short Distance Radio (KAR)) for controlling traffic lights in the coming years. The advantage for the ambulance sector is that with this new method no special components are needed in the ambulances, as is now the case. More than 1000 traffic lights have already been converted to iVRI. Last spring, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management announced that it wanted to make an additional 10 million euros available for the installation of extra iVRIs, which are preferably placed on routes where priority vehicles, such as ambulances, are most used.
About AZN and the Computable Awards
Industry association Ambulance care Netherlands (AZN) represents the interests of the ambulance sector and supports its members in various (policy) areas. AZN acts as a representative of the ambulance sector in society and also offers various forms of service and support to the Regional Ambulance Facilities (RAVs), such as meeting, organizing and negotiating. The Computable Awards are the most famous ICT awards in the Netherlands. In 2021 they were awarded for the sixteenth time to companies, projects and individuals that have clearly distinguished themselves in the past year.
