Summary
Estimating the effect of traffic calming measures on ambulances
García A , Moreno AT, Romero M, Perea J
Affiliation of the authors
Grupo de Investigación en Ingeniería de Carreteras (GIIC), Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain. Purdue University, Indiana, EE.UU. Ingeniero de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Valencia, Spain.
DOI
Quote
García A , Moreno AT, Romero M, Perea J. Estimating the effect of traffic calming measures on ambulances. Emergencias. 2013;25:285-8
Summary
Objective: To estimate the effect of traffic calming measures (TCMs) on ambulance
response times during different types of service (emergency and nonemergency
transfers, with and without a patient), in different traffic conditions (free flow or forced
flow), and over entrance ramps with different slopes.
Methods: Two ambulances equipped with global positioning system devices were
monitored for 2 weeks to study routes and speeds. To assess the influence of TCMs,
speed of the ambulances over the TCMs, seconds of delay, and total time we calculated.
Results: Ambulances changed routes by more than 1 km to avoid TCMs if patients were
inside, leading to delays of up to 40 seconds. Average speed over TCMs differed in
relation to traffic conditions (P=.045) and type of service (P=.001). Each TCM
contributed a delay of between 1.4 and 4.3 seconds, depending on type of service and
traffic conditions.
Conclusions: Response time was influenced by the presence of TCMs. A mathematical
model that predicts response time by taking into account the number of TCMs can help
ambulance services select the most appropriate route to drive.