Loveland: City adds more GPS traffic signals to cut emergency response times

Traffic signals at four more intersections in Loveland will be outfitted with GPS units to improve the response time of its fire and emergency vehicles and to reduce accidents there.

The GPS units installed in traffic-signal control boxes allow approaching emergency vehicles equipped with associated GPS units to interrupt signals and give them a green light.

The units will be installed this year at Lebanon Road and Pheasant Hills Drive; Lebanon Road and West Loveland Avenue; West Loveland Avenue and Rich Road; and Loveland Madeira Road and Highridge Drive.

Over the past two years, the city installed units at West Loveland Avenue and Karl Brown Way; West Loveland Avenue and Loveland Madeira Road; West Loveland Avenue and Second Street; Second Street at Five Points; and Ohio 48 and Loveland Miamiville Road.

Three emergency vehicles at the Downtown Loveland fire station on East Loveland Avenue have in-vehicle GPS units and in-vehicle units will be installed in three more fire department vehicles at the Loveland Safety Center on South Lebanon Road this year.

“Traffic preemption is the most cost-effective investment a community can make that improves response times, while safeguarding the motoring public and the safety of our firefighters,” Chief Otto Huber of the Loveland-Symmes Fire Department said in a news release.

Police vehicles to get GPS units, too

In 2022, Loveland will begin installing GPS units in police vehicles and they will be included as standard equipment going forward.

“Given the success of the units and the evidence of their reduction in both response times and intersection crashes, the city expanded the program into a four-year plan,” City Manager David Kennedy said.