Getting Buy-in for Road Diets From Fire Departments

In an article for Strong Towns, Asia Mieleszko outlines how road safety advocates can collaborate with local fire departments to support traffic calming methods and narrower streets without compromising emergency response.

For example, in Jersey City, “the city would erect short-term installations—‘for as little as six hours’—and invite first responders to maneuver the simulation. Sometimes these installations would take place on city streets and other times in municipal parking lots, something she notes any city could replicate.” This helped fire department officials understand how the adjusted lanes would impact their operations. Barkha Patel, Jersey City’s director of infrastructure, says the same is true of other city programs, such as parklets. 

“Involving city agencies on the ground floor of the city’s plans has been indispensable to the city’s Vision Zero strategy,” Mieleszko writes. “Coupled with very temporary installations, the city figured out an inexpensive yet productive way to nurture buy-in not only from emergency services but also the broader community.”