Bloomington approves traffic light study

Posted on May 24, 2016
traffic light
Bloomington emergency vehicles haven’t had an update to their traffic light preemption system on over two decades. (Photo courtesy Flickr/DavidLofink)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington’s city council has given the green light to a study of the city’s traffic light preemption system that emergency crews use to turn lights green when responding to calls.

Assistant city manager Steve Rasmussen told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin the city is starting off with a preliminary study to determine whether there are solutions worth exploring.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Rasmussen on WJBC.

“We don’t spend a lot of time and money doing things that don’t have any potential outcome at the end,” Rasmussen said.

The fire department’s system that overtakes traffic lights to turn them green is about 25 years old and fire officials say it’s too costly to maintain.

Rasmussen said the study will be done jointly between the fire and public works departments and should take about six months.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

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