Huge fire trucks are a real problem for cities. Requiring roads to be huge so emergency vehicles can move through them is locking streets into being big for unnecessary reasons.

I lived in a tiny town for a few years. They wanted to build a road out to some spread out houses, but couldn’t afford it. The reason? The fire department bought a new huge truck and demanded the road be wide enough for them to turn the truck around anywhere they liked.

The result was part of the city being cut off for decades as the city council fought the firefighters. All because anyone of 1800 people bought a hook and ladder truck capable of handling skyscraper fires. The tallest building in town is three stories and it still burned down, even with the oversized truck on hand.