Currently fire and safety officials have a device that allows them to change the traffic lights (Boy do I want one! I promise to be good!). But, people still run red lights, and may not relaize it was changed for a police/fire vehicle.
Why not a traffic light that lights up differently when police/ fire vehicle approaches the intersection? One way might be a fourth "light" that lights up in conjunction with red, to signify an emergency. Another might be a red light that blinks at a high rate of speed.
It would take awhile to catch one, but once it does it will be less likely for cars to crash with emergency vehicles?
Or are they doing this already beyond where I live?
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Perhaps a blinker system on the green and yellow with a steady red would do.
Just in case it wasn't apparent a red light means stop regardless of why it's red. That some morons haven't quite figured that out is not a reason to pour more money into elaborate systems that they will ignore just like they ignore the red light.
I don't know about where you live but here the emergency vehicles come with their own sirens and flashing lights. If you can't hear the siren or see the lights there is a good chance you shouldn't have a driver's license anyway.
A flashing red light wouldn't work, because it's already used in some places to signify "Stop, then proceed through the intersection after checking that it's clear." This is turned on at late night, usually. It would be dangerous to expect the public to be able to distinguish between a flashing red light of this sort and a more rapidly flashing red light that means STOP!!
Yes, drivers need to learn to actually stop at red lights. I've seen problem intersections or rural roads with white strobes or red lights with flashing white rings around them to draw attention to the red light. In Mexico, some red lights are twice the diameter of the yellow and green lights to make the point.
Such signals already exist near fire stations. The road normally has flashing yellow, but when a fire truck has to exit the station, the light goes to solid yellow, then red, thus serving as a special-purpose red light.