MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- It's every motorist's fantasy to be able to make a red traffic light turn green without so much as easing off the accelerator. That naughty dream may now be coming true, with perilous implications.
The very technology that has for years allowed fire trucks, ambulances and police cars to reach emergencies faster - a remote control that changes traffic signals - is now much cheaper and potentially accessible to civilians.
No bigger than a dashtop radar detector, the device is known as a mobile infrared transmitter, or MIRT, and can be had for about $300. The possibility of its proliferation is unnerving public safety and transportation officials.
``It has the potential to be a huge problem,'' said Steve Misgen, a Minnesota Department of Transportation signal operations engineer.
MIRTs are the triggers in so-called ``traffic pre-emption systems,'' which are comprised of two parts: a receiving device mounted on a stoplight and an infrared transmitter normally placed in emergency vehicles that has a range of about 1,500 feet.
The technology has been used for about three decades and is widely deployed. A U.S. Department of Transportation survey of the nation's 78 largest metropolitan areas last year found them at about 26,500 intersections across the nation.
A cheaper MIRT available since January from FAC of America, which is based in Fridley, Minn., costs less than half the previous price of other devices that go from $650 to $1,000.
The company's president, Tim Gow, insists he has strict safeguards against MIRTs falling into unauthorized hands and that its affordability helps public safety officials with tight budgets.
``We get requests from individuals, but the answer is no,'' he said. ``This is a lifesaving piece of equipment.''
So far, law enforcement agencies report no problems from the devices. But traffic engineers and some politicians are concerned, and an Associated Press check of eBay on Monday found some of the cheaper devices for sale on the Internet, as well as kits for building similar gadgets.
By Wednesday afternoon eBay spokeswoman Jennifer Caukin said the site had barred sale of the devices, and at least one eBay user had been suspended for selling one. Caukin wouldn't say when eBay had banned the devices.
Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, introduced legislation Wednesday that would outlaw unauthorized use of products like the MIRT. Unauthorized users and the distributors who sell the product to them could be fined up to $10,000 and jailed - up to a year for distributors and six months for users.
Law enforcement officials ``rely on this technology for good purposes, but since it's becoming more marketed, the potential is there for abuse,'' DeWine spokeswoman Amanda Flaig said.
Last month, the MIRT caught the eye of a committee of traffic engineers from the Minnesota Department of Transportation and communities around the Twin Cities. Though many cities and states have laws against interfering with traffic lights, Misgen said the committee likely would recommend that the state legislature specifically outlaw the devices for unauthorized users.
In Michigan, a state legislator has promised legislation to make the devices illegal.
Gow, an electrical designer, has been in business for about 20 years. He said his company would sue any unauthorized person who uses its devices.
The primary makers of traffic pre-emption systems, 3M Co. and Tomar Electronics Inc., offer encryption technology that can lock out unauthorized devices - but it is far more expensive than systems that operate in the clear.
Systems that offer encryption run roughly $2,500 per unit higher than those that don't - a considerable expense for any cash-strapped municipality if it was forced to retrofit traffic signals.
It's not clear just how many cities have the encryptable devices. The Institute of Transportation Engineers in Washington, D.C., said there's no way to tell, and a 3M spokeswoman wouldn't comment on how many cities bought devices before encryption was available.
If transport officials became locked in a technology arms race with infrared transmitter outlaws, the costs could be high. Most major cities don't put pre-emption devices at every intersection, but there are plenty: Minneapolis, for example, has about 900 traffic lights, of which city traffic officials say about 40 percent are pre-empted.
Misgen, the state engineer, said only a handful of the 640 traffic lights he oversees in the Twin Cities area are fitted with the module that allows encryption.
``This might be a huge expense for cities, counties and states,'' he said.
