ROAD DIETS CAN HAVE CATASTROPHIC IMPACTS ON EMERGENCY RESPONSE TIMES

KeepLAMoving has talked with firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, police, and other first responders from Fairbanks, Alaska to Manhattan. They are universal in their concerns over the impacts of poorly planned and executed road diets on heavily trafficked thoroughfares in their communities. Such changes have dire effects on emergency response times, when every second could be the difference between life and death. The video to the right shows a dramatic example from Venice Boulevard in West L.A.’s Mar Vista neighborhood. A few blocks away a motorcyclist lay trapped under a semi. And in the video on the left below an LAFD ambulance resorts to “suicide mode” - traveling in the wrong direction in the opposing lane - to get around road diet gridlock and get to the scene.

It’s happening nationally. Here are videos from our affiliate group Queens Streets for All in New York City. Just like on Venice Boulevard ambulances and fire engines get completely stuck on a recently road dieted street. Imagine it’s you or a loved one waiting for lifesaving help. In the last video, an FDNY ladder truck collides with two parked cars on a narrowed, road dieted street.