Finland is about to adopt a national traffic light priority service that will provide a "green wave” guiding ambulances, fire engines and first responders through intersections throughout the country. The system, which will be adopted in summer 2026, will get help to its destination faster and reduce risks at busy intersections.
When an emergency vehicle approaches a busy intersection, every second counts. Now it is easier than before to get through intersections in a controlled and safe manner: Fintraffic’s new national traffic light priority system detects the location of an emergency vehicle and automatically switches the lights to support its movement. Once the emergency vehicles have passed through the intersection, the traffic lights will return to their normal operation, and normal traffic will continue without any sudden braking or hazardous situations.
“All cities, municipalities, and wellbeing services counties are welcome to join the national traffic light priority service. The aim is now to create a national green wave for rescue and first responder units from traffic lights to traffic lights and to ensure that help gets to its destination safely and quickly,” explains Juho Neuvonen, Product Manager at Fintraffic.
This year, the national traffic light priority service is gradually entering its production phase in different parts of Finland, and it will be officially adopted for full use in July 2026. New cities and wellbeing services counties will be gradually connected to the service as the production phase progresses once the testing of their systems has been completed.
National service to bring authorities and cities together
The traffic light priority service has been tested in close cooperation in recent years during its production pilot phase, in which numerous cities and wellbeing services counties took part.
“Approximately 700 intersections and 300 emergency vehicles have been involved in the production pilot phase. There have been no accidents involving emergency vehicles at the intersections involved in the pilot phase. This demonstrates that the system works in practice, and its impact is particularly visible in congested road sections, where every moment is crucial for rescue services and first responders,” Juho Neuvonen continues.
The national traffic light priority service will allow all traffic lights and emergency vehicles to work in a compatible manner, also across the borders of different cities and regions. Data is transferred in a secure and encrypted network used by the authorities. The centralised solution will save society’s resources by maintaining a single entity whose costs are shared equally between users. In the first phase, the service can be used by rescue departments and first responders to streamline the movement of their emergency vehicles. In the future, joint development work will also enable the police to join the service.
Fintraffic is responsible for the production and maintenance of the service. Service users, including Finland’s rescue departments and emergency medical services, are responsible for the equipment in their own vehicles and the orientation of drivers. Traffic light owners - cities, municipalities, and the state - are responsible for the control equipment and maintenance of the systems.
Traffic safety is created through anticipation. Fintraffic’s Road Traffic Management offers and develops services that contribute to safe and smooth traffic on Finland’s road network every day of the year. Our goal is to enable the safest, smoothest, and most environmentally friendly road transport in the world with the help of smart services and an extensive partner network. We improve traffic flow and safety, for example, with the aid of traffic lights, tunnel technology, road weather data, and variable speed limits.
