first response to an emergency. An ambulance will then <br />provide transport to a hospital, if needed. To accommodate <br />the need to move the vehicles and access equipment on <br />them quickly, the Uniform Fire Code calls for a 20-foot wide <br />clear passage. <br />The risk of liability also raises concerns about response time <br />and the amount of equipment carried on trucks. A success- <br />ful lawsuit in West Linn, Oregon found that a response time <br />of eight minutes was inadequate. The National Fire Protec- <br />tion Association, which is the national standard-setting <br />body for the fire service, is proposing new rules that would <br />require a maximum four-minute response time for initial <br />crews and eight-minute response for full crews and equip- <br />ment for 90% of calls. Fire departments have also been sued <br />for not having the proper equipment at the scene of an <br />accident. This puts pressure on departments to load all <br />possible equipment onto a vehicle and increases the need to <br />use large vehicles. <br />III . Background Residential streets are complex places that serve multiple <br />and, at times, competing needs. Residents expect a place <br />that is relatively quiet, that connects rather than divides <br />their neighborhood, where they can walk along and cross <br />the street relatively easily and safely, and where vehicles <br />move slowly. Other street users, including emergency <br />service providers, solid waste collectors, and delivery <br />trucks, expect a place that they can safely and efficiently <br />access and maneuver to perform their jobs. Clearly, balanc- <br />ing the needs of these different users is not an easy task. <br />Oregon's cities reflect a variety of residential street types. In <br />many older and historic neighborhoods built between 1900 <br />and 1940, residential streets typically vary in width in rela- <br />tion to the length and function of the street. In many cases, <br />a typical residential street may be 24 feet to 28 feet in width <br />with parking on both sides. However, it is not uncommon <br />to find streets ranging from 20 feet to 32 feet in width within <br />the same neighborhood. Newer subdivisions and neighbor- <br />hood streets built since 1950 tend to reflect a more uniform <br />design, with residential streets typically 32 feet to 36 feet in <br />width with parking on both sides and little or no variation <br />within a neighborhood. <br />3 <br />0 <br />93 <br />