The detailed statistics might be interesting, but I think anyone who has driven in this area for the past decade would testify to the increased congestion. It is obvious on its face.

Placing this issue back on the municipalities and the County is appropriate. They issue the permits for the high density housing along El Camino Real, hotels at Marsh and 101, as well as large corporations which bring in throngs of commuters (in addition to the busses).

Signal pre-emption is a must, but only a short term fix. It is a cost that should be borne by the businesses and commuters causing the congestion. The Fire District is sitting on a pile of cash and they should use those ample funds to invest in the infrastructure that would allow them to deliver services in a timely manner.

The issue is also one of liability. By placing the issue before each of the cities, places the blame, risks and potential negligence squarely where it belongs. Each city has the duty to provide a safe way for the 1- Police, 2- Fire, 3- Ambulance and 4- other public safety and emergency vehicles to get to where they need to go. Growth may be important for the community, but at what price?

Didn’t the fire district just improve the fire station on the east side of 101. Can’t that station take care of problems in those areas that the Middlefield station has to travel to using willow rd? How many of those calls that the Middlefield Road station responds to using Willow Road are traffic issues on 101? . I think there needs to be an independent study as to what calls are actually helping Menlo residents and how many of those calls can be handled by the east of 101 station. Maybe that station is where improvements need to be made to help with time responses
We need more information as to what the Middlefield Road station responds to before there is any talk of doing something to Willow road. Peter carpenter is not the person to tell us the numbers since he is long been an advocate of tearing up Willow road. An independent study is the only way to proceed.. widening Willow road will only increase traffic and congestion and do nothing to improve times. Maybe another fire station needs to be built and strategically placed to better serve its residents. Sure be easier then trying to “fix” Willow road

Clearly none of the writers has ever waited for the FD while watching flames eat their house -- or has been a patient in the back of an ambulance stuck in traffic (as I have).

It's quite a shock to see that, in the wealthiest community in the U.S., the FD & PD are perceived as being too expensive.

While I value the concern, I think labeling it as "catastrophic consequences" may be a little melodramatic. Additionally, this is not unique to our area. All the concerns that Menlo Fire identified are common through San Mateo County, the Peninsula, and pretty much the Bay Area.

I applaud the FD for addressing this issue. Since Menlo Fire participates with other county fire agencies in automatic aid which includes boundary drops (e.g. Redwood Fire could respond into Atherton and Menlo Park) maybe this should be discussed among all agencies. They could even go so far as to explore alternative delivery options versus sending an engine to most calls.

Drones are being used very effectively to triage fires ahead of the arrival of fire captains, and in spite of traffic jams. Time for our fire department to enter the 21st century.

With the Fire District, it is ALWAYS "someone else's fault". How about Harold + Chuck take responsibility for adjusting infrastructure and personnel? The District's own stats show that medical calls continue to dominate over conflagrations, but they still send out ladder trucks and full crews when someone's got heart palpitations. How about adding smaller stations at more locations in the city, staffed by smaller crews running ambulances? That would have been a better use of funds than buying that Atherton house next to the existing station. Do your job, Fire District!

It almost seems like this data is from the previous MPFPD president and not the new one as their alarmist claims are not supported by the data the provided. I would hardly claim that the data indicates any "catastrophic consequences" in the near future, that said this is an issue that must be addressed and is not the responsibility of only the cities. The MPFPD is flush with our money and have been spending it freely, what about opening some satellite stations that would be staffed during the "waking hours" with one engine and would be primarily for medical calls, which seems to be the primary type of call they are responding to. They would have a faster response time and can triage the situation and deliver immediate care.

Anyone who has driven in traffic on Willow and Marsh during commute times—— 8:00am to 10:00am: 3:30pm to 8:00pm ...is aware of the problems....Come on, we re not stupid people. Traffic will not stop. Fire District cannot enforce traffic laws.... how about building fire facilities that will provide better response times.. or place equipment on a temporary basis during those commute times.

Problem solved:
The county and cities of the fire district need to take a lot of the responsibility too.

How about curtailing development?
If we can't take care of the current population, increasing the population will lead to catastrophe.

"Drones are being used very effectively to triage fires ahead of the arrival of fire captains, and in spite of traffic jams. Time for our fire department to enter the 21st century."

A drone never put out a fire, or performed CPR. I want fire units focused on safely arriving at the emergency scene, rather than launching and monitoring drones. Remember, most fire responses are to medical related issues and most of those are out of the view of a drone.

Drones may have value in assessing long term, major events, but little if any value for most fire responses. Citizens on the scene with cell phones provide a tremendous amount of information before units arrive. Perhaps developing a system where citizens on scene can provide live video feeds to responding units would be more efficient and effective.

@Just the facts,
I'm trying to offer up some solutions rather than just continue to whinge about the admittedly bad traffic and put together a "paper trail" of why the FD was delayed. Drones make sense where there's a fire to be assessed. There's often a significant amount of time assessing a fire before major suppression work - an early arriving drone could get the time clock started minutes earlier. Motorcycle-based EMT teams could start CPR or early triage started much earlier. But that would require change...

Agree with everything that Jenson, Brian, Bob and Shakedown said.

There is no reason that the district needs to roll an engine and/or a ladder truck need to respond to purely medical emergency.

If the response times from the Fair Oaks, Chilco, and East Palo Alto stations are too long, then maybe the district should allocate more resources to those stations instead of buying single family residences in Atherton and West Menlo.

This is an important issue and it is disappointing that the district is not looking for solutions other than "build wider roads and don't let cars drive on them."

By the way, this PR effort by the district is doomed if they keep Chuck Bernstein as the face of it. That guy is like the Ted Cruz of Menlo Park- no one likes him. That's a problem when you've got a shaky grasp on the facts and are trying to persuade!

Shakedown:

How right you are!

Like at all fire departments, only a tiny fraction of calls are for fires or anything requiring half-million to million-dollar hulking fire engines and trucks.

It's a costly and inefficient American blind spot that fire departments everywhere are still trying to maneuver these huge, lumbering and very costly-to-operate FIRE-FIGHTING apparatus through traffic and smaller city streets to MEDICAL calls.

Note that all across Europe, you will typically see paramedics arrive on the scene of medical calls and even most car crashes in smaller, cheaper and more nimble vans, sedans or even motorcycles.

Image gallery of German car crash scenes ("Unfall") with paramedics ("Notarzt") here (note how few show fire trucks ... typical for Europe): Web Link

For fastest paramedic response through heavy congestion, specially-equipped motorcycles ("Motorrad") are even used in some areas: Web Link

Stanford should be included among those to whom the Fire District's warning letter should be sent, as loading the campus in the morning and unloading it in the afternoon probably contributes more to the congestion than any other single employer.

Carpenter said the budget is "responding to the increased demands on the district." "The number of people that we serve, particularly the daytime population, the number of square footage of buildings, etc. these things are all growing," Carpenter said. "The other piece is the innovation piece. We've made a commitment to innovation and doing things differently."

That was May 30, an eternity ago. Hmm, what could the FD do to innovate and do differently to mitigate the impact of traffic?

+ Upgrade all traffic lights for pre-emption throughout the district (disruptive technology).
+ Re-think the apparatus it sends to routine medical responses (motorcycles, Tesla SUV).
+ Designate standby locations for fire personnel during congested time periods (for example, stage at Willow and 101?)
+ Build additional facilities (rather than purchase adjacent houses and lots) in new locations to improve response times based on known, recurrent congestion

Drones are nice and certainly they augment the mission. In light of the crisis outlined in this article, it would make sense to invest in technology, equipment, facilities, personnel, and processes that meaningfully impact response times.

What ideas does the Fire Board have? I think a good, competitive election would probably bring them out as the candidates announce what they plan to do differently.

Time to address the solutions to less congestion: fund public transit options to get people out of cars, build safe and continuous pathways for bikes and walking, require major employers to provide high occupancy transportation options to their employees, implement trip caps with heavy fines, and slow down development until solutions are in place.

@where is transit

Are you suggesting the FD use its ample surplus to fund public transit in order to get their fire engines through congested traffic. That is certainly thinking out of the box!

Your government is already implementing high density housing near public transit, CalTrain. A drive up El Camino Real reveals the abundance of new apartment buildings. Yet, all of these people have cars and don't rely on transit. Even if transit were FREE, they would still get in their cars. The bus doesn't run to Costco and I assure you all of these people end up there on the weekend -- with their cars.

I think at some point society reaches an equilibrium. Some segment of the population will be willing to tolerate the inconvenience of congestion and housing costs because they are able to earn enough money to make it worth their while. Others will choose to move out of the area because they either made their money or they value the better quality of life one can find outside of the peninsula and California.

That said, the government should ensure a minimum level of public safety, including reasonable response times to emergencies. With the FD sitting on a mountain of cash, it is reasonable to expect they use that accumulation of OUR money to mitigate the increased response times -- a 'catastrophic' problem.

I thought the fire department was going to put the paramedics on motorcycles so they could respond faster? Didn't Peter Carpenter donate some money for this?? What happened?

Motorcycle Emergency Respose Team capability does sound like an intriguing option to assure reasonable medical response times for initial treatment during congested periods: Web Link

Part of the problem may be the 'full-response' clause of the FD union contracts, wherein trucks and ambulances respond for every call, no matter the issue. Oftentimes one seems the fire coming to an emergence, and quickly move on.