6 ms·
The real cost of the American fire truck is in the roads it forces to be extra wide. It’s those trucks that make it necessary to have oversized neighborhood str
by throwaway13337 1y ago
The real cost of the American fire truck is in the roads it forces to be extra wide. It’s those trucks that make it necessary to have oversized neighborhood streets. Most countries don’t need that.
In Europe, you’ll see small, peaceful neighborhoods where people naturally drive slower on narrower roads. More greenspace. Less asphalt. They have small fire trucks that can navigate those streets just fine.
There’s really no reason they need to be so massive. It's a choice.
- DoesntMatter22 1y agoThat works a lot better in Europe because realistically it's a lot smaller. America is absolutely gigantic
- Yacoby 1y agoI'm not sure I understand your point. Just because the country is large doesn't necessarily mean that you need larger fire trucks? (Or that America needs a one size fits all approach to fire trucks - things that work well in cities may not work well in rural areas)
- DoesntMatter22 1y agoSince you have typically much larger distances to travel, people want larger cars. You couldn't take american cars down some of those english roads.
- TheTxT 1y agoWhat does the size of the country have to do with the size of firetrucks?
- jojobas 1y agoOr rather, European cities have to settle with inferior small fire engines because of their legacy infrastructure.
- PetitPrince 1y agoAnd yet you have similar or better fire death rates statistics in Europe (https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fire-death-rates https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fire-death-rates) despite "inferior" gear.
- jojobas 1y agoPerhaps they have more of them per sq.km/dwelling, or build houses and make wiring to less crappy standards. The choice of bigger, heavier trucks is not because of shortage of smaller chassis or excess money, they fit more stuff.