Suburban Streets Show Limitations In Emergency
This morning I had to be at Olive & Fee Fee, not my favorite place in the region. While I normally dread the drive this morning was a bit worse. Firefighters were putting out a fire in one of the very old (possibly historic) buildings along Olive, just west of Tempo Drive (map).
As a result, all westbound traffic on Olive had to be diverted through a subdivision and out onto Ross Ave where we could return to Olive. The curvy street we took is Tempo Drive crossing Olive yet along the way it changed to Impact Drive. The distance actually wasn’t so bad but it was slow going, it was still early and it was the opposite direction of most commuters.
But what if the fire had been just east of Tempo, rather than west? Tempo is the first street west of I-270 that will get you through to somewhere else. Unlike the urban street grid, where if a road is blocked you just go over a block, these suburban roads have limited choices. Would they have simply closed the road forcing drivers to get back on the highway and go up to Page or down to Ladue Road? Or diverted westbound traffic onto a lane of the eastbound side?
One thing I do know, I can’t imagine living in such an environment.
– Steve
Not as bad as in some other areas! Imagine a metrolink accident, fire or act of terrorism at the Richmond Heights station hidden behind a bowling alley with very limited access.
It may be impossible (unless helicopters are used) to get any emergency vehicles to about 150 homes located in the area. Blockage at McMorrow and E. Linden (which is very narrow and has a Metro bridge) could create an absolute nightmare. A similar problem exists for Handley Downs but it has much fewer homes.
This bottleneck/limited access situation was created by a combination of Metrolink, MoDOT and the use of eminent domain for private use/benefit.
If you thought that was bad, try schleping yourself home from Westport to S. City when “Dubya” decides to come and visit in the middle of rush-hour.
Looking at that map view makes me feel really, really bad for Emergency Response vehicle drivers that would have to respond to a call in one of those neighborhoods. I can’t imagine trying to respond quickly and having to snake your way through that rat maze. Hope they have a TomTom eh!
We do the same thing to ourselves in the City with those concrete barriers (and permanent street closings). Case in point, when the condo building on Grand went up in flames a couple months ago, the only way to get around it was to go through Tower Grove East because all of the cross streets that continue through Shaw are permanently closed.
Just so happens that the location of the fire necessitated a ten block detour through Tower Grove South, which was not equipped to handle the excessive rerouted traffic. Yes, it took me twenty minutes to bypass that one intersection (longer than it takes me to bike to work – I wish I had not had to drive that day).
Perhaps if I would have known ahead of time, I could have easily avoided the whole mess, but once you are sitting there waiting, it’s too late.
P.S. You know a City dweller when they complain about a 20 minute traffic delay.