Cheryl Bernard blames DOT street redesigns for ambulance delays

Hello.

Hi, can you all hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Hi, how are you?

Good evening, good afternoon.

My name is Cheryl Bernard, and I want to say afternoon to the chair members, the city council, the members of the Committee on Fire and Emergency Management Hospitals, and everyone involved in this meeting.

I want to say thank you to EMS and their FD for their service.

I myself, I'm a retired member, 29 years of NYPD for communication division that oversees 911 system.

So trust me, I know about the calls that come in.

I also want to say my condolences to the family of Nick.

My comment is.

Population and housing increasing, hospitals decreasing, NYPD, FDNY, and EMS workers retiring, all these situations make response times decrease.

I am all for the pay increase.

I am definitely for that because as one on the receiving end, we definitely need more money and we're underpaid.

But you can increase the pay.

You can remove personnel from the deck.

desktop, you can put them in a field, everything else you can think of, the common denominator here and the main problem is DOT's active project of bus lanes, bike lanes, and street thinning and street closures and rerouting.

I have a video where ambulance was called to an emergency on Rutland and Kingston.

No traffic can pass because the newly installed protected bike lane

No one can pass.

In the video, there's no bikes traveling on a bike lane, but all the cars were backed up and they had to find another route to leave.

Can you imagine if this was reversed?

Let's say that, and this happens, we're in New York City.

So someone had an emergency that's a car driver who required medical attention and the ambulance was behind the traffic.

How is the ambulance supposed to get to the person needing assistance?

The latest is a concrete slab.

It's right in the middle of the intersection of Winthrop Street and Kingston Avenue, and it's right at the location of an ambulance hub.

How can they put this extended street narrowing concrete slab?

Right at the corner of an ambulance hub.

How are fire, police, and EMS are supposed to get to an emergency if DOT keeps causing traffic delays?

A few more comments just on this and then I'm done.

An NYPD RMP can maneuver a lot better through traffic and the shorter distance turns that it's going to take with the bus lanes and the bike lanes, the bus lanes and bike lanes are creating where it's hard to make a U-turn, it's hard to make a turn.

NYP.

can get to a response time or a medical emergency quicker than an ambulance because they can't maneuver through traffic.

And there's no way, absolutely no way, and I beg of you, that the city council should support

a 911 operator or dispatcher giving the public any ETA for any emergency vehicle to arrive

because they cannot determine if a bike or bus lane where they have to travel, for example, they want to put bike lanes and bus lanes on Utica Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, and Church Avenue, which is a main hub.

It's a main street.

They want to thin it to one lane of traffic.

How is an ambulance and a fire and RMP, how are they supposed to get through this traffic when it's only one lane?

Giving a response time will cause the city to be at jeopardy of being sued.

But then again, I guess these ballot questions in November, they tend to take away the rights of the public anyway.

But city council should not.

I think you all should go for a ride along to see and experience how it is in trying to get through traffic.

When the bike and bus lanes are creating one lane of traffic, it is you can hire as much people as you want.

The response time is still going to be slow because they have no way to travel.

That's the end.

Thank you for hearing my, my plight.

I'd like to just say that I align myself with each and every one of your statements.

Thank you.

Christopher Kaganar.

Yes.

We can hear you.

We can hear you.