For this project, I decided to further research the ambulance transportation system within large cities such as Manhattan and my designated neighborhood, Long Island City. The residents of these areas are the stakeholders of this system. When emergencies that require immediate attention or speedy transportation to a hospital occur, the people who are injured rely on the ambulance to get them to the nearest health facility promptly. Under normal conditions, especially in large and busy cities, the ambulance transportation system fluctuates in its efficiency due to traffic on the roads.
Although emergency vehicles have the right of way when responding to these urgent situations, the drivers still need to be cautious when speeding and justifiably disobeying the traffic laws. In addition, when there is heavy traffic, the vehicles on the road aren’t always able to move out of the way to allow the ambulances to pass them. This delays the response time for ambulances to get to people, which can cost them their lives.
This is a very controversial issue, residences pay taxes so that in the event of an emergency, an ambulance will arrive at their service to rush them to a hospital. When ambulances don’t arrive on time, the patients could lose valuable time or even worse, die. This raises the question of priority. People may get angry that they are paying all these taxes and not getting quicker response times in the event of an emergency.
My proposition in resolving or even aiding this issue in the ambulance transportation system, is to create a separate designated lane for emergency vehicles that regular cars, trucks, and buses are not allowed to drive in. This may be difficult since not all streets have multiple lanes or room for an additional lane. However, it has become more common throughout Manhattan, and even some areas in Queens, to have “Bus Lanes” that cars and trucks are not able to drive in. Personally, I feel that emergency vehicles should have priority over buses if there could only be one additional lane for either vehicle. Nonetheless, it would still greatly benefit the efficiency of ambulance response times if emergency vehicles shared that lane with the buses. Oftentimes the sirens from emergency response vehicles cause drivers nervousness and anxiety to get out of the way. This can also cause accidents on the roads. An isolated lane that separates emergency response vehicles from the rest of the traffic in the city will allow ambulances to get to people a lot quicker, without risking the safety of the vehicles in front of them.
