As someone who walks a lot in NYC and frequently sees ambulances/fire trucks caught in traffic, I’m not sure what the mystery is here. This is just what happens when you fill the streets to capacity, normalize double-parking, and then try to move an extra wide vehicle.
Hopefully congestion pricing helps once it’s finally implemented. I don’t see a solution that doesn’t involve fewer cars on the road.
The other part of it is the complete and total apathy of drivers. They'll hear/see an ambulance in their rearview and despite having sometimes the option to move to the side, will just sit there, expecting someone in another lane to move out of the way.
Why doesn’t NYC have smaller ambulances? In Berlin for example they’re normal width vehicles. Maybe they're not equipped the same but all that gear won’t do anything if you can’t get there.
That’s quite nice. But to put things in perspective, the entire country of Norway’s population is much less than NYC and also it’s not dense. I can’t imagine how you would implement that here
It is here. AED’s are everywhere in NYC. Whether someone actually stops to help is another story.
The article blames the anti-car agenda on slowing drivers and emergency responders as well. No, the problem is the anti-car agenda isn’t strong enough. People are driving more than ever, making traffic worse. Yet, driving is still so convenient that people choose it over public transportation and other options, clogging up the streets.
We need to discourage driving so much, and invest in public transportation enough, that people actually stop choosing to drive. Ambulances being able to respond quickly will be just one of the many benefits of such a policy. Also, I bet with more people walking and biking instead of driving, they’ll get more exercise and fewer heart attacks. Less air pollution will probably reduce heart disease as well. It’s all the same problem.
Yeah, it’s a weird take. NYC has extremely high car ownership outside of downtown and midtown. Then add the daily number of cars that drive into the city. More cars is not the answer.
Are ambulances not allowed to or cannot use bicycle lanes and/or pedestrian promenades? Getting rid of cars should make ambulance times faster, and usually does.
> “In recent years, EMS has experienced an explosion in call volume, including in the number of high-priority calls, as well as an increase of transports to the hospital,” she added.
I wonder if that explosion is due to post-covid complications.