Ten North Texas cities are about to get smarter traffic lights instead of wider roads. Regional officials are investing more than $11 million in technology meant to make existing streets safer and more responsive, targeting corridors where fatal crashes have piled up and where adding lanes simply isn’t an option.
The Regional Transportation Council has approved $8.7 million for the program, and authorized an additional $2,543,400 last Thursday, bringing total funding to $11,243,400, according to The Dallas Morning News. The participating cities include Frisco, McKinney, Allen, DeSoto, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, Denton, Arlington, Fort Worth and Southlake, each set to receive different systems based on their eligibility. Frisco, McKinney, DeSoto, Duncanville, Allen and Cedar Hill will all get emergency vehicle preemption, technology that lets ambulances and fire trucks trigger green lights as they approach an intersection.
Why Fort Worth’s East Berry Street Made the List
Fort Worth plans to install smart traffic signals and detection technology along East Berry Street, stretching from Interstate 35W to Miller Avenue. The corridor sits on the city’s High Injury Network and recorded 10 traffic fatalities between 2019 and 2024, per ThatCarHitMe.com’s analysis of Dallas-Fort Worth crash data. Fort Worth’s City Council approved a comprehensive Vision Zero Safety Action Plan last October after fatal crashes in the city climbed 31% and serious-injury crashes rose 22% over the preceding five years, the same analysis found.
Southlake will upgrade its traffic signals to use smart intersection technology, while Denton plans to deploy traffic-monitoring and traffic-calming equipment along roads with high concentrations of collisions. Arlington’s project takes a different shape, deploying smart rail technology and traffic sensors along its high-injury roadways. Other technology improvements across the program include advanced signals that adjust timing based on incoming traffic and railroad-crossing systems that alert drivers when a train is blocking their path.
How Emergency Preemption Actually Works
Natalie Bettger, senior program manager for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said traffic signals can return to normal coordination within a few cycles after an emergency vehicle’s priority request passes through, according to the Morning News report. The goal, officials say, is ensuring patients reach hospitals quickly and safely. Research reviewed by the U.S. Department of Transportation backs that logic, finding that emergency vehicle preemption on signalized corridors can cut response times by 14% to 23% while also lowering intersection crash risk for first responders…