12 ms·
> and the problem was eventually fixed What exactly was the problem? (emergency services were concerned that an ambiguous locating would delay their response).
by falsedan 9y ago
> and the problem was eventually fixed
What exactly was the problem? (emergency services were concerned that an ambiguous locating would delay their response).
- dsr_ 9y agoPre-GPS, post E911: if a road has sequential numbers, the ambulance can pass 235 Edge-of-Town Road looking for 237 Edge-of-Town Road, slow down to 15 mph looking for the next driveway, and miss saving a life because 237 is literally 3 miles further. The rationalizing plan associates numbers with distance, so 235 will be very close to 237 and a house 3 miles further will be numbered 873 or so, even with no other addresses in between. As long as they are re-addressing, they also remove all twin addresses in the same ZIP code -- only one 125 Main St allowed per ZIP. Sometimes this means re-naming streets. The house I grew up in changed from 85 to 421; our neighbor on the left was 417 and on the right was 435.
- falsedan 9y agoYeah but here all the lanes are within 700m of each other. There's clear lines of sight down each lane and three major cross-streets to gain access from[0]. I guess if a 999 call said that they're "on the lane near Gorden's Saddlery", that would add a significant delay as the paramedics might have to check 9 lanes. 0: https://goo.gl/maps/ArGeqNKwcJ52 https://goo.gl/maps/ArGeqNKwcJ52