Apr

GPS saving lives in New York

Posted by Jill

Following the laws that have caused riot amongst the famous New York cabbies, the cities ambulances and firetrucks will now be equipped with GPS technology to allow real time tracking of their movements. City officials hope that over the next six months, more than 1,500 emergency vehicles will be fitted with AVL systems, expanding on a pilot scheme that has been running since September last year. The trials revealed that the GPS tracking systems cut response times to serious accidents by around 14% by allowing dispatchers a more accurate picture of where their vehicles were in real time. While the cost of installing the equipment will probably break the £35million mark, by cutting response times by even a matter of seconds, mobile technology will hopefully make up for its cost by saving lives.

Previously military run GPS was considered too unstable to rely on in emergency vehicles with the government having the capability to cut off civilian access at anytime. With the non-military European Galileo project being developed, is this the US trying to prove that their system is just as reliable? What do you think?

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gps tracking » Blog Archive » GPS phones track spouse, kids (Gps Tracking) said in September 3rd, 2006 at 9:39 pm

[…] GPS saving lives in New YorkJill’s Corner - 5 hours ago… The trials revealed that the GPS tracking systems cut response times to serious accidents by around 14% by allowing dispatchers a more accurate picture of … […]

Global News Blog » North America - New York state trooper dies after being shot in leg during search … said in September 4th, 2006 at 8:29 pm

[…] GPS saving lives in New YorkJill’s Corner - Sep 3, 2006Following the laws that have caused riot amongst the famous New York cabbies, the cities ambulances and firetrucks will now be equipped with GPS technology to … […]

davestarr said in September 12th, 2006 at 5:10 pm

Looks like I came in a little late on this one, but you did ask for opinions. so I’ll offer one. The concept of the NAVSTAR (GPS is a technology, NAVSTAR is the system run by the US military) being unreliable and subject to being cut off “on a whim” is valid in the same sense that a meteor may fall on one of us at any moment or we die of a sudden undetected physical malady even at an early age.

While it’s perfectly true the US military has sole physical control of NAVSTAR they operate it under the authority of the President and the US Congress. Several years ago the US Department of Defense and Department of Transportation signed an agreement in 1997 that the civilian (non-encoded) signals would be available to the public until at least 2012. In practicality the DoD could not turn off civilian signals at this time if they wanted to, a majority of DoD users as well as commercial and other nation users are already dependent.

I welcome Galileo in the sense that it will provide stronger and more accurate enhancements to the GPS, but recognize that it is nothing more than a money-grab attempt, led by the French to take a world-wide free asset and attempt to prioritize it. In my view, of course.
Best regards
Dave
http://www.satviz.com/GPS_Blog