December 21, 2010
December 08, 2010
How about adopt others' standards?
Thanks to FABB for bringing this up...
Right now, Fairfax County is considering new standards for neighborhood street widths. The county was all set to adopt VDOT's standard, which is 29ft for low-volume streets with parking on both sides.
Enter Fairfax County Fire & Rescue. They complained. Loudly. Stating that the proposed widths are too narrow for their equipment in the case of a fire or other emergency.
So the county is waffing on it now, and proposing a minimum 36ft width, even on low-traffic streets. This satisfies Fire & Rescue, but results in wider neighborhood streets that are feared to become dragstrips of higher-speed traffic, even (and especially) in low-volume neighborhoods.
So my question to the county is, why not come to a happy medium? My home city of Minneapolis, MN has a 32ft standard, which works just fine and fire engines can still get down the street easily.
Right now, Fairfax County is considering new standards for neighborhood street widths. The county was all set to adopt VDOT's standard, which is 29ft for low-volume streets with parking on both sides.
Enter Fairfax County Fire & Rescue. They complained. Loudly. Stating that the proposed widths are too narrow for their equipment in the case of a fire or other emergency.
So the county is waffing on it now, and proposing a minimum 36ft width, even on low-traffic streets. This satisfies Fire & Rescue, but results in wider neighborhood streets that are feared to become dragstrips of higher-speed traffic, even (and especially) in low-volume neighborhoods.
So my question to the county is, why not come to a happy medium? My home city of Minneapolis, MN has a 32ft standard, which works just fine and fire engines can still get down the street easily.
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