Worsening traffic congestion in San Diego is increasing fire department response times, according to a report delivered to the City Council's Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee Wednesday. The presentation from the consultant Citygate Associates was a follow-up to a 2010 study that quantified the need for more fire stations and determined which locations were most urgent.
According to the update, an analysis found that during normal traffic periods, only 74 percent of the city's public streets were within 5 minutes travel time of an active fire station. Five-minute coverage at morning and afternoon commute hours was reduced to 51 percent of roadways.
Only 6 percent of city streets were quickly reachable during commute hours for first-alarm responses in which multiple units have to travel across larger sections of the city, the report said. That's even though the first- alarm standard is three minutes longer.