An emergency vehicle traffic signal preemption system using existing inductive traffic loops that is either "car-active" or "car-passive". In the "car-active" system, a passive element having position information transmits an ID tag and the position information to a transceiver in the vehicle when an emergency vehicle is detected by the existing inductive traffic loop. In the "car-passive" system, a transceiver at the intersection is activated to send an excitation signal to a transponder on the emergency vehicle. The transponder responds with the emergency vehicle ID. The transceiver in the vehicle in the "car-active" system or the transceiver at the intersection in the "car-passive" system, transmit position information to the traffic controller to preempt operation of the traffic signals.