A virtual preemption system for emergency and non-emergency vehicles to provide a priority safe route for an emergency vehicle, wherein the in-vehicle software can predict the predefined upcoming intersections on the priority route based on the heading of the emergency vehicle and the segment orientation. Therefore, the emergency vehicle knows the latitude/longitude of the upcoming intersections ahead of time to calculate a threshold start time associated with each one of the predefined upcoming intersections and transmit them to all vehicles approaching any of the predefined intersections on the priority route to start a safe transition of traffic signal phases associated with each one of these intersections just before the arrival of the emergency vehicle. Also to allow all vehicles on the priority route to slow down and pull over to the side of the road just before meeting the emergency vehicle.