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71% of U.S. drivers admit they have taken photos and videos of crashes or fires … while driving.
- Speeding cars harm Emergency Response Times
- Moving cars can harm our Emergency Responders
Do bike lanes hinder or help Emergency Response Times?
In recent weeks, bike lane projects in Burlingame and the city of San Mateo have been scrutinized and falsely blamed for interfering with emergency vehicles and emergency response times. One project is on Delaware Street in San Mateo, and the other is on Trousdale Drive in Burlingame.
- Burlingame council members apparently said that “three nearby schools and Mills-Peninsula Hospital” make “a bike lane unrealistic here“. Whereas Common Sense would say three schools and a hospital are four good reasons to have bike lanes here.
- Another Council Member promoted “sharrows” over bike lanes here. In case of such dangerous proposals, Common Sense is happy for those children that the hospital is so close. It might not be close enough.
- Common sense can’t tell why council members Donna Colson, Desiree Thayer, and Andrea Pappajohn are unaware that bicycles improve education and health outcomes.
More info from Common Sense: Children need to ride bicycles to become healthy and to ride safely, and they need bike lanes. Getting a few doctors, nurses and teachers to ride bicycles—instead of just recommending that they do so—couldn’t hurt our health care and education system either.
Arlene O’Campo died on Trousdale Drive, and the Burlingame council showed little concern
As a backstory, we need to remember that just two months ago, Joel Gilongos (59) was running a red light and killed Arlene O’Campo (61) on Trousdale Drive and El Camino Real, right in front of the same hospital. She crossed absolutely legally in a crosswalk, having the right-of-way, while the SUV driver was speeding through this intersection.
Again, she did absolutely nothing wrong, but as usual in these cases, city leaders seem to side with the man bringing the violence instead of taking responsibility for their non-action.
The city encouraged pedestrians and cyclists to take more responsibility, get off their devices and pay more attention to not being killed. Just to make sure in the fine print staff added suggestions to victims of domestic violence to not ‘mouth off as much‘; to victims of mass shootings to ‘don’t stand too close together‘; to opioid addicts to ‘not trust their doctors so easily‘; and to victims of financial fraud that ‘staying poor protects you from future stock market losses’.
Back to our main feature tonight
A woman died around the hospital, and Burlingame’s council members are more concerned about speeding cars going up rather than down. They are trying to make the case that bike lanes reduce emergency response times and that, therefore, all of Trousdale Drive needs to stay a 6-lane race track. The council members also think that people on bicycles can easily take a 5-10 minute detour, while drivers always must have the straightest route.
These notions fly in the face of research and common sense, since the three major threats to Emergency Responders and Emergency Response Times are still cars, cars, and more cars:
- Speeding Cars – those are the ones causing collisions.
- Moving Cars – those are the ones killing first responders.
- Parked Cars – those are the ones blocking fire lanes and hydrants.
Bicycles and bike lanes, on the other hand, are helping to reduce many of these problems. With fewer of those speeding cars and more separation of speed and power, we would see fewer of those emergencies and many victims and first responders would still be alive.
Slow Moving Cars are killing Emergency Response Times
How often have we seen Emergency Responders taking the fast lane on the freeway just to be stuck behind some driver who doesn’t move over? Is that even lawful?
CA VC 21806: Authorized Emergency Vehicles: Upon the immediate approach of an authorized emergency vehicle which is sounding a siren … the surrounding traffic shall … do the following:
(a) … the driver of every other vehicle shall yield the right-of-way and shall immediately drive to the right-hand edge or curb of the highway, clear of any intersection, and thereupon shall stop and remain stopped until the authorized emergency vehicle has passed.CA VC 21209 says, “(a) No person shall drive a motor vehicle in a bicycle lane established on a roadway under Section 21207 except as follows …“
According to the law, bike lanes are tools that can help in case of an emergency. In general motor vehicles are supposed to stay out of bike lanes. But if a signaling emergency vehicle approaches, motor vehicles are allowed to move over, without harming the people on bicycles, of course.
First responders arriving late can mean the difference between life and death. When the sirens go, people must slow down, steer clear of the road or intersection and let them pass by. Unfortunately, many do not, making the job of first responders a very risky occupation.
Fast Moving Cars are killing Emergency Responders
For almost all of these crashes mentioned last time around, ambulances and firetrucks will be called on the scene, which puts them right into the danger zone of fast driving vehicles. All states have Move-Over laws now, but still, according to data collected by NHTSA and the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), fire truck crashes are the second leading cause of on-the-job deaths for firefighters. ResponderSafety.com tries to keep records about hits and near misses. On their memorial page of fallen comrades, they call these “struck-by Incidents”.
I published some data about firefighters and their 2,500 blocker vehicles that got demolished when “Taking the Lane“. Now let’s dive into why the ambulance you called might run a little late. A report released by the NHTSA showed that:
- There are an estimated 6,500 collisions involving ambulances each year.
- Nearly 60% of ambulance collisions occur during the course of emergency use.
- 35% of crashes resulted in at least one injury or fatality.
- That is, 2,600 people are injured in 1,500 ambulance collisions each year.
- There are, on average, 30 fatal ambulance crashes each year.
- Emergency medical personnel are at a higher risk of crashing when compared to other first responders.
As a passenger in an ambulance, you might think you are in a safe space and on your way to an even safer one. But these are San Mateo streets. Some large, speeding F-150 Raptor or GMC monster truck might be taking out your ambulance before you even get there.
How Lawmakers could help?
Slow driving vehicles are the ones preventing first responders from getting to the location of the emergency in time. Fast driving vehicles are the ones crashing into first responders and their vehicles.
Active policing and traffic enforcement has gone down, while police budgets for tech and toys have gone up. Military style equipment, riot gear against peaceful demonstrators, drones, etc., cost money to buy and more to repair and maintain. All the while police unions have fought Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) in California over many years. But to fix the speeding and blocking problems for our Emergency Responders, we need a few automatic tools combined with an easy process to punish reckless driving or just educate by sending out warnings.
The idea of having police cars, first responders, tow trucks, SamTrans buses, and other professional vehicles equipped with cameras to issue automatic tickets to those blocking the streets and intersections sounds great. That could be made a law.
Conclusion
Instead of vilifying bike lanes and keeping school children in the same lanes as cars and emergency responders, it is always preferable to have them separated. If you think this kind of wisdom should be a political no-brainer for San Mateo Democrats, you would be sadly, sadly mistaken.
The good news is that we have proven Donna, Desiree, and Andrea wrong. Bike lanes will not kill emergency response times or emergency responders, but cars and drivers certainly will.
Better news is that Burlingame already had that wisdom, as Mayor Peter Stevenson pointed to the success of bike lanes on California Drive, which “slowed down cars and it’s working” and “We might get frustrated because of parking … but guess what — it’s working.”
More Information
- Youtube: Compilation of Car Collisions
- Youtube: Nightwatch: Car Accident Rescues
- Youtube: That’s why your house will burn down
- Workzonebarriers: Firetruck Collisions
- NSC: Drivers even more distracted by Emergency Vehicles
- Federal Highway Administration: Move Over Laws
- Blog: Three huge threats to Emergency Response Times
- Blog: Speeding Cars harm Emergency Response Times
Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in all blog posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Redwood City Pulse or its staff.
