The mayor of Seattle wants to put four firefighters on motorcycles in a pilot program designed to improve the response time of emergency services. Mayor Greg Nichols proposed budgeting $570,000 for the two-year pilot.
Motorcycle-mounted emergency medical services in the U.S. have been around for a few years. I remember reading about a New Jersey motorcycle medic team in the late 90s and a handful of cities, including Miami and Pittsburgh, use them today. But the idea is much more common in Europe and Asia, where bikes like the one shown here from Hong Kong are used to cut through heavy city traffic.
Between two motorcycles, the paramedics can carry all the gear needed to stabilize a patient until an ambulance arrives.