How American Fire Departments are Getting People Killed
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN people link it in threads on big vehicles and road safety as a comparison of US and Dutch fire department approaches.
What it is
Not Just Bikes argues that oversized American fire trucks and fire department requirements push cities toward wide roads and dangerous street design. He compares this with the Dutch approach to emergency response.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2024 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends CHB0403085482 · 2024-09 · on “Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them”
Also "How USA Fire Departments Are Getting People Killed". Summary: forcing bad road design to accommodate giant fire trucks cause more car collisions [this video]
Recommends viraptor · 2024-12 · on “Fire risk assessment of battery home storage compared to general house fires”
Depending on which requirement they mean, that case is actually interesting. There's a good video from Not Just Bikes about it [this video] ("How American Fire Departments are Getting People Killed")
Recommends piva00 · 2025-07 · on “Why does a fire truck cost $2m”
I think this video from the Not Just Bikes channel shows quite well the major difference in approach between fire departments in the USA vs the Netherlands (which is quite similar to many other European countries): [this video] Fire engines in Europe are as well equipped as the American/Canadian ones while not depending on these massive and expensive bespoke rigs.
Cites throw0101a · 2025-01 · on “43K fewer drivers on Manhattan roads after congestion pricing turned on”
> How do you propose we handle logistics or emergency vehicles? Find the the width of said emergencies vehicles, and then build bike lanes that are a little wider than that: the emergencies vehicles can drive down them quite easily (and cyclists can get out of the way quite quickly). Alternatively, if a city has trams, created segregated rights of way, and the emergency vehicles can use them. * [this video] And less-car-centric areas ≠ no-vehicles-allowed-ever areas.
Cites nayuki · 2025-04 · on “The Difference Between Municipal Fire Trucks and Airport Fire Trucks”
Somewhat related, Not Just Bikes / Jason Slaughter talked about how large fire trucks create the need for wide roads, which enables normal car drivers to go at dangerously high speeds. [this video] (27m24s) [2024-08-11]
Cites ropable · 2025-07 · on “Why does a fire truck cost $2m”
I recently watched a YouTube video that described how American fire trucks have gotten progressively larger over time, which may help explain some of the cost increase: [this video]