The Emergency Services provide a life saving service to our communities and workforces across the UK. Emergency vehicles play pivotal roles in the performance of their respective systems. For example; if onward transport is required, an ambulance capable of conveying a patient should arrive at the scene within 19 minutes in 95% of cases (House of Commons, 2016). Evert second counts especially with life threatening conditions or situations.
Some of the challenges the Emergency Services experience are often negotiating the constraints on the road networks. This can include congestion as well as the temporary and permanent road layouts which can cause delays whilst on route to and from incidents.
Transport for London (TfL), London Ambulance Services (LAS), Metropolitan Police and Canary Wharf Contractors (CWC) worked together to investigate and trial mitigation measures to assist with response times.
CWC cordoned off part of their storage area to enable trials of a traffic management method. This involved using ‘knock-down cylinders’ that would mimic highway segregated delineation. The trial enabled officers assess the potential benefits and vehicle impact whilst negotiating. The trial provided successful and has led to a pilot being undertaken on York Road, Lambeth supported by CWC.
The pilot involves implementing the same concept (knock-down cylinders acting as traffic segregation) along the entire stretch of carriageway adjacent to the CWC development. The Emergency Services teams have distributed the message internally (ability to negotiate the traffic management) and are monitoring use. The LAS Head of Driver Standards has already reported some successes where these measures have benefitted ambulance crews with saving time.
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