V2X Based Emergency Corridor for Safe and Fast Passage of Emergency Vehicle

In today's world, traffic jams are major concerns for emergency vehicles like Ambulances, Police cars and Fire Brigade trucks which get stuck in traffic and unable to reach their destinations in time, resulting in a possible loss of human lives. A better control over the transportation system can be achieved through the V2X based smart transportation. To deal with such emergency situations, this dissertation proposes a framework for automatic “Emergency Corridor” creation for speedy clearance of emergency vehicles. The traffic signal controller dynamically suspends the routine movement of traffic flow to provide the green phase to the approach containing the emergency vehicle using V2I communication while V2V communication makes the vehicles in the front to make way for the emergency vehicle. The work is simulated in the VEINS framework i.e. combination of SUMO and OMNeT++. We have compared the end to end travel time of Emergency vehicle with and without the proposed algorithm in two different traffic demand situations.

I. Introduction

Increasing population and urban mobility is the main reason for the continuous rise in the traffic. Increase in the number of vehicles leads to congestion and causes traffic jams. It is not uncommon to be in a heavy traffic and hear the siren of an ambulance, but unable to figure out where to move the vehicle and give passage to ambulance. In the Medical emergency situation, it is very difficult for ambulances to reach the place of incident quickly. They get stuck in the traffic and unable to reach in time, causing loss of lives. These vehicles need to be cleared from the traffic junctions as quickly as possible. In India as per, 2019 Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill, a driver can be fined Rs. 10,000 for not giving way to emergency vehicles [1]. It is a known fact that the possibility of survival of victims is increased by providing emergency medical treatment as soon as possible. Currently, in many places, to alert the participants of the traffic, emergency vehicles use audible and visible alarming systems. This alarm system can only be sensed from a limited distance. This scenario becomes more tangled when other emergency vehicles also arrive at the same time. In this situation it is very difficult to identify the direction and distance of an Emergency Vehicle. This conventional method is not suited for congested areas but still finds use as the de facto mode of operation. Below are the few techniques used to minimize the delay of Emergency vehicles.