90
How American Fire Departments are Getting People Killed (www.youtube.com)
submitted 3 months ago by TheTechnician27@lemmy.world to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
15 comments fedilink hide all child comments
top 15 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] DrunkEngineer@lemmy.world 35 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

For those interested in this topic, there are better sources of info than a NJB youtube video. In my experience, NJB is more interested in clicks than accuracy, and this video is no exception.

In particular, the complaints about oversized firetrucks is a bit overblown because any halfway competent bike planner can work around that when designing bike facilities. When cities say they can't do a bike project because of FD concerns, it usually means they just don't want to do an otherwise popular project, and are using flimsy FD excuses as a convenient way to kill a project.

[-] Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 months ago

Okay, so if oversized firetrucks are not to blame, then why exactly are US car lanes so damn huge? 12ft car lanes seems standard in most of the US while Europeans drive just fine with 8ft wide car lanes.

[-] Rexelpitlum@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 3 months ago

Could anyone do a Too Long, Didn't Watch?

I'm interested in what this is about but am not able to watch a video right now...

[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Tldw. It's not the firedepartment. It's roads are too wide so vehicles go fast. The FD happen to have large trucks.

[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 65 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That's not an accurate TL;DW. A more accurate one is: Fire department specifications in the US mean that the trucks are wildly oversized for no reason, while European and East Asian ones are smaller, more maneuverable, and safer despite serving the exact same purpose and having the exact same gear. These needlessly oversized trucks are a detriment to safe urban design because fire departments lobby local governments to keep streets ridiculously wide because their trucks can't properly drive through reasonably sized streets. The size of fire trucks could be reduced and more specialized vehicles used for EMS (which makes up the overwhelming majority of fire department responses), and it would have no impact on the readiness of fire departments at worst or, at best, it would make response times quicker.

@Rexelpitlum@discuss.tchncs.de, hopefully this suffices.

[-] Rexelpitlum@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Thanks a lot, this is really interesting and seems to be my TIL! I will definitely watch that video later.

And this also shines an interesting light on the unusually wide street layout of the city quarters I am living in. I've been always wondering about that...

Thing is, my part of town has been the living quarters of GI relatives of an adjacent US military base (up until about 25 years ago). Whole part of town basically has been "Little America" back then, complete with (at least partial) US jurisdiction. And they had their own fire department at the base...

[-] toaster@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Also, fire engunes are used to respond to non-fire related calls which are most of them.

[-] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

If only humans could find some way to control the size of firetrucks...

[-] xiao@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 months ago

USA needs to change its paradigm "bigger is better".

Bigger monuments, bigger buildings, bigger cars, bigger soda cups,... -_-

Human being needs to learn to use what is necessary and cooperation, not excess and stupid competition.

[-] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 7 points 3 months ago

Bigger salary, right?

Right?

[-] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

If you're in tech, medicine or industry, then yeah. Pretty much anything else and you're screwed.

[-] beefbot 1 points 3 months ago

Love the content, hate the headline shifting blame away from the actual vehicle. The blame isn’t really with the roads, or the lifesaving people driving who actually do have to get there fast, is it?

[-] PedestrianError@towns.gay 11 points 3 months ago

@beefbot @TheTechnician27 Firetrucks are inanimate objects. Humans make decisions about how to design, deploy, market, and accommodate them. A local fire chief just parroting industry dogma may be less responsible than someone with more power who chose not to sell reasonably sized fire trucks for suburbs and small towns in the US, but the trucks aren’t buying themselves or testifying against safe street designs at the planning board.

[-] beefbot 2 points 3 months ago

True, you have a point. Ergo the headline should blame the humans with that power, not the inanimate roads, I guess (I don’t get everything right!)

this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2024
90 points (100.0% liked)

Fuck Cars

9629 readers
542 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
ConfidentLonely@lemmy.world
Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world
toaster@slrpnk.net