Finding A Common Ground For Emergency Response And Healthy Streets

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Finding a common ground for emergency response and healthy streets

	Convener:  Dan Burden, 614-595-0976  dburden@aol.com

Participants: Leif Olson, City of Fayettevile, Tim Conklin, City of Fayetteville, Ak; Kevin Clinkenberg, Lilly Picchione; Dan Curry Lynn Drawdy, Ryan Snyder, Susan Erickson, Tony Seis

Goals for Project: Find a common ground for proponents of healthy streets and emergency response teams to agree upon.

Problems/Issues:

Alleys, some agencies don’t want anything to do with alleys. Fire service wants wide paved areas, turning radii, 25 curb radii.

Want to get aerial ladder truck everywhere

More equipment carried on engines

Equipment cannot be small because they have to cover other areas and purposes

Worst case scenario planning

Cul-de-sacs are defended as necessary

Clear width requirement, and local discretion

Health and safety …. Traffic crashes versus response times

Personality based; some marshals are reasonable, some are not

Voodoo surrounding trucks and how they work, actual space needs

Staging areas; how to get around the 20 foot clearance issue

Distance for setup

Fire sprinklers

Wants alleys to look like a street

International Fire Code has language that determines who plans and builds streets and how much access is necessary. Interpretation of the code. Some folks read the code with great creativity.

Process solutions:

Take the city council for a ride (in the fire equipment) to separate myth from reality
Set up the equipment on a tight street and see what the base needs of responders are for common and ultimate needs for access and operations
Include fire administrators on street standards and traffic calming teams
Include fire service on project site reviews as part of a table team, where everyone works together to come up with working solutions
Conduct research and show how other cities achieved solutions that work
Have one type and set of reviews and criteria for conventional, another for traditional, another for traffic calming

Equipment and system solutions
Provide understanding of how equipment works and what equipment options are available
provide right sized equipment, not oversized or over scaled for mission
use accordion doors
map out turning radii of equipment, and include understanding of equipment overhang
use scissor extenders (lower profile, shorter outrigger spacing)
train and expand medical response teams (include police as first responders for heart attacks)

Planning and street solutions

use rollover curbs in entry medians or some corners
assure parking densities will not be too high for narrow streets. This may call for new modeling techniques
use home sprinklers in hard to reach locations on distant narrow streets or when other factors call for their use
alley turning radius can be kept tight if alleys are correctly designed. Make alleys too wide and parking abuses will occur
do not use cul-de-sacs, but “close” solutions for better aesthetics and use of land.
use “hammerheads”
use “driveway streets” for 10 or fewer homes
use curb extensions, especially on right hand sides to assure access entries
provide assurance that a 20 foot wide operations area will be assured at midblock locations on blocks 400 feet or longer. This can be achieved by ganging two sets of driveways together, or by building curb extensions to prohibit parking

Last edited by kfarm.   Page last modified on November 29, 2005