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mcguire

Out of curiosity, have you ever driven a box van on roads with 10ft lanes?

I just looked this up: an ambulance is 9' wide. A pumper truck is 9'9". A ladder truck is 10'.

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Which is why European cities with narrow roads have special fire trucks that accomdate them.

Today we build cities to fit fire trucks instead of building fire trucks to fit cities.

Looks like we've got an expert here. Please sir, cure us of our collective ignorance. What is the ideal street width, in millimeters?

Edit: I'm going to leave my comment as-is, and just point out that this is a question that you should feel comfortable answering, even if indirectly, to weigh in on this matter. HN is getting way out of hand with people prescribing solutions to problems that the prescriber knows jack shit about.

Here's an example of a Japanese fire truck for narrow residential roads: http://www.synapse.ne.jp/hozumi/P1000996.jpg

It fits into the "Kei car" tax category, which means max 3.4m (11.2ft) long, 1.48m (4.9ft) wide

And Europeans and Scandinavians generally, especially here in Norway, get out of the way when an emergency vehicle is heard or seen. Often this happens on roads that are only six metres wide yet there is still room for the ambulance or fire engine to storm down the centre with room to spare.

Of course not all Europeans are so public spirited, I've seen video from the UK and Germany where people made no attempt to get out of the way.

I know which fire truck I want if my place is burning. The bigger the better. I'll take a 20-foot wide truck please, with extra water. Little trucks are not the same.

Done that without problems, also because I know how to drive.

Out of curiosity, where you found 9' wide ambulance when the US GSA (General Service Administration) standard says that they should be 96 inches or less?

Amherst, MA.

https://www.amherstma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/24390

The Fire Apparatus Manufacturers Assn. thinks 26 states limit their equipment to 102" and another 17 are "exempt."

That is a "medium duty" ambulance, and those aren't especially common (some areas use them quite heavily, but most don't).

Ambulances are generally built on pickup truck or van chassis (the Ford F350/E350 lines are popular).

Here is the model lineup of a popular ambulance manufacturer:

http://www.braunambulances.com/models/

The "10' wide" fire engine there supposedly conforms to the AASHTO BUS-14 standard... which means 2.6m wide. (This is the widest type of vehicle in the list.) 2.6m = 102"; 102" = 8.5'.

Go figure, as they say.

Please allow me, not that you have the option or anything, to link to a previous comment of mine, which is probably appropriate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12472990

(Maybe 10' includes the wing mirrors? 1.5' = 45cm. 22.5cm per side. Not unreasonable for lorry-size wing mirrors.)

Whoa whoa whoa. You are getting it wrong. The size reported by your Amherst document is the maximum width, not the body width.

I have an idea of the importance of this distinction, and I could go at great length explaining it. But the linked document reference the AASHTO's Green book as a reference. And if that manual says that 10-foot road are ok in one chapter, and acknowledge the vehicles dimension in another, chance are that is ok. Obviously, if you think it is not, you have to demonstrate they are wrong.

Full disclosure, I know nothing about traffic engineering and I'm an average driver. This is the reason why I check expert sources and not the first document found on the internet...

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