PITTSBURGH — The city is installing more and more speed humps and traffic circles in an effort to slow down drivers and make the streets safer for pedestrians and bikers.
But Target 11 has learned that the Pittsburgh firefighters’ and paramedics’ unions are contending the traffic calming measures may actually be making people less safe.
The traffic circles cost about $10,000 each, and the speed humps $12,000. The city contends they are worth every penny because they have been shown to slow down traffic and reduce crashes, but some first responders said they could cost precious time during critical emergencies.
During the past couple of years, the city has installed 14 traffic circles and more than 100 speed humps. The city said residents and neighbors have demanded assistance to slow down drivers.
“This is in response to community needs that have been brought to us for more aggressive help controlling speeding drivers,” said Nick Ross, a traffic engineer for the city of Pittsburgh.
Ross said so far the traffic circles, modeled after ones in Seattle, and the speed humps appear to be working. While Ross said the city doesn’t have any crash-related data just yet, Target 11 found a recent PennDOT study indicated that roundabouts have been shown to reduce crashes by 20%. That PennDOT study evaluated the larger roundabouts located on state routes.
However, Target 11 learned that not everyone is sold on the new safety measures.
“We believe it delays response times. It makes the firefighters and the residents less safe in an emergency,” said Tim Leech, Vice President of the Pittsburgh Firefighters’ Union.
The union contends that some of the ladder trucks aren’t able to make the turns around some of the circles, including one at North Euclid and Rippey Street that is just blocks away from the fire station in East Liberty.
While shooting video of that traffic circle, we captured one of those ladder trucks struggling just to go straight across the traffic circle, especially with cars parked close to the circle. We watched as the ladder truck was forced to go over the two black barriers and hit a flexible, yellow warning post just to make it around the circle. The ladder truck could not make the left turn around the circle, but was able to continue straight across.
“Typically, you would bring your ladder truck down here and could turn left or right without any problems, but now you can’t?,” asked Target 11.
“No, you can’t. The traffic circle has an obstacle in the middle of the turning area. And then in addition when you have a telephone pole and signs and fire hydrants on the corner, you can’t mount the curbs and make the clearance for the turn,” said Leech.
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Target 11 took those concerns to the city.
“They can’t get around that?,” we asked Nick Ross, the city’s traffic engineer.
“I can’t speak to specifically, but we try to plan out all of our circles in coordination with public safety to make sure that they’re done in a meaningful way,” said Ross.
We also saw a smaller pumper truck attempt to make a turn. The driver had to stop and then back up just to make a turn around the circle.
The union said firefighters are now mapping alternative routes to avoid traffic circles and speed humps, and they said some of these routes may take them longer.
Residents who support traffic calming measures didn’t know about the trouble with some of the fire trucks.
“That’s something I wasn’t aware of, and that’s definitely a problem given that the fire station is right down the street,” said one resident.
Target 11 also learned that the Paramedics’ Union is concerned about the delays caused by speed humps, specifically the four on Black Street, just down the street from the Medic 6 station.
The union said that Black Street is essentially an important shortcut for ambulances headed from the east end to Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville.
A study by the federal highway administration found that speed humps add 10 to 15 seconds to emergency vehicle response times.
“We have to go around them or find a different way,” said Paramedic Union Vice President Jonathan Atkinson, who said the rescue trucks and ambulances are forced to slow down when they encounter speed humps.
“We try to make the argument that if it was that big of a deal, we would be taking cars off the streets, so they don’t get stuck in congestion either, and it really has to that sort of tradeoff between needs on both ends to share, " said Ross.
Leech also said that firefighters were never warned about those four speed humps on Black Street, and he said they learned about them the hard way when they hit one on an emergency call.
“We’ve had incidents where the fire hose fell off the truck because the bounce was too jarring. It’s like they’re putting more obstacles in the way to try to slow the fire trucks down and keep them from getting to emergencies when seconds count,” said Leech.
“It’s a tradeoff between our residents who need safety on their streets, so they don’t end up in the hospital, and our emergency service providers who want to be sure that we’re getting our folks to the hospital in time,” said Ross.
“They want to make the neighborhoods safer for the residents and we certainly understand the need for that, but you know you can’t just slow down civilian vehicles and not slow down public safety vehicles,” said Atkinson.
“Our mission statement is saving lives and saving property. Life is the number-one priority and the property is second. When seconds count, I don’t think people want their fire trucks to have to go a different route or slow down on the way to a call,” said Leech.
The Firefighter’s Union said they expressed concerns about the delays to the mayor’s office, but the administration tells me it’s a balancing act, and they suggested that the benefits of the traffic calming measures outweigh the risks of any potential delays.
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