Illegal devices cheat traffic

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 21, 2006

LYNNWOOD – Technology that helps police and firefighters control traffic signals in emergencies apparently is being illegally used by scores of impatient drivers in Snohomish County.

Fixing the problem may cost the community big bucks, officials said this week.

Some traffic signals in Lynnwood are detecting thousands of hits per month from infrared transmitters unlawfully installed in personal vehicles, Lynnwood transportation division manager Les Rubstello said.

The transmitters, normally mounted in the light bars of emergency vehicles, emit pulses that trigger green lights at intersections equipped with infrared receivers.

When people unlawfully install the transmitters – often after buying the equipment online – it can lead to accidents or longer waits for law-abiding drivers, experts say.

“There has been a problem with people tapping into the systems in other cities,” Lynnwood police Sgt. Wayne Davis said. “It can lead to collisions.”

State law prohibits anyone other than emergency responders from using the transmitters. The penalty is a $101 ticket, Snohomish County sheriff’s spokesman Rich Niebusch said.

In Lynnwood, the illegal transmitters seem to be getting the most use at the busy intersections of Alderwood Mall Parkway and 184th Street SW, and 168th Street SW and 44th Avenue W., Rubstello said.

Two years ago, the city reprogrammed its transmitter system to block unauthorized use. Only city-owned emergency vehicles, which use specially coded transmitters, now can trigger green lights, Rubstello said.

However, the city’s specially coded signals also block out emergency responders from outside agencies, Rubstello said.

“We debated that for awhile, and we figured there were enough benefits for getting rid of the illegals,” he said.

Some of the infrared equipment on the market isn’t able to be reprogrammed, Rubstello said. Replacing equipment to stop illegal users can be costly, he said.

County officials plan to encrypt 100 or more traffic signals in January to block the knock-off devices, county traffic engineer Jim Bloodgood said.

That means patrol cars used by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office will have to upgrade to a more expensive brand of signal device that works with encryption, he said.

The devices in the hands of everyday drivers can really mess up traffic, he said.

“The lights will cascade to let platoons through,” Bloodgood said. “When it gets pre-empted, it goes out of its cycle.”

It can take three cycles for a traffic signal to return to normal operations. In the meantime, traffic can back up.

“It’s against the law to have them,” Bloodgood said. “If we could catch them, we would fine them.”

Everett has given police and firefighters technology to control traffic signals at intersections since the early 1980s. It hasn’t experienced a problem with unauthorized use, city spokeswoman Kate Reardon said.

She said a test using commercially available transmitters a few years ago showed they didn’t mesh with the city’s system. Even if security was breached, she said traffic engineers can change the system frequency to shut out cheaters.

The city also installed yellow beacons on signals that light up when transmitters are used. The attention-drawing lights may be a deterrent to would-be violators, Reardon said.

Catching people who illegally use the technology is difficult, Sgt. Davis of Lynnwood said.

For now, encoding the transmitters is the best defense against people who would abuse the system, he said.

“That’s until they come up with a way to defeat this, and, of course, someday they probably will,” Davis said. “Then the system will have to be upgraded again.”

Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.