emergency efficiency

Played go yesterday, and met with a guy who works in London Transport. I pitched the idea of Emergency Efficiency to him. Then I remembered this fundraising service, and you are invited to participate with money, comments, and being involved if this thing gets off the ground.

Here's an extract from Social Art that explains the idea and procedure:

During the 24weeks experience (cf Generating Pulse), I began to think of applying Social Art to all manner of things. My attention was drawn to police cars driving through traffic; it's quite common to hear sirens while walking around london. I remember waiting at a bus stop and watching how traffic responded to an approaching ambulance. And then it occurred to me: there was a disorder in traffic. Coming up with a solution at the social level might help emergency services navigate traffic thus reducing time for fire-engines and ambulances to get to accidents. This could save lives.

I remember being taught to conduct emergency stops, but I could not remember exactly what I was supposed to do when I heard sirens. Normally, when I am in a car and I hear a siren, I try to locate from which direction it is coming. Quite often, people start to slow down. This causes blockages, especially at junctions. How many times have I seen emergency services stuck in a traffic jam caused by the sound of their own sirens? So, one thing to check is what the high-way code recommends. Do they suggest that we slow down and turn to the side of the road, or that we turn to the side of the road and then slow down? The difference is critical. My suspicion is, people tend to put their foot on the brake when they hear the siren. This means that everyone about has be aware of the change of state of traffic, and also apply their brakes. This causes the blockage. You can not turn to the side of the road when you have stopped. This takes seconds if not minutes for a collective around a junction to sort itself out. So, the solution, is to turn to the side first, and then slow down. That is, the priority is to create a free channel for the emergency services to travel down.

How could this be implemented? Here's where critical mass and timing come into play. It doesn't work if we just change the high-way code or try to emphasise it through traditional means. We need to induce a culture change, critically over a short period of time, so that we can witness the benefits. It's a classic social problem, and perhaps the case to set a precedent for Social Art. So, what do we do? We go to emergency services and say we will reduce the time it takes from notification of emergency and arrival at the site within the month. The first month we collect data, interview various drivers, verify the insight regarding the traffic flow, elicit ideal behaviour they would like to see on the roads when they are responding to an emergency. We also collect stats regarding the current times across the entire region of london. This takes a week. This is the current condition. We then ask for free time on radio and tv and perhaps even local new channels to publicise the efforts, in schools, every means possible to engage person-to-person awareness of the initiative. The objective is to ensure that everyone knows what they are meant to do when they hear a siren: to turn off before slowing down. And if they can not turn off, not to stop but to keep going until they reach a point where they can turn off. There should also be some kind of website to explain in detail with various examples visualised. Ideally too, there might be a phone centre where volunteers explain to members of the public that remain confused as to what to do. The instructions are pretty simple however, and should be comprehensible over a short radio broadcast. The fourth week consists of collecting various testimonials and current data regarding times to see if there is an experiential and objective consequence to the initiative. These results are then celebrated, with thanks to the public, reports with respect to the number of lives saved as a result, even personal gratitude to the public, reports, articles, etc.

If it works, this is real proof of the power of collective action. It sets a precedence for initiatives implemented through networks. It gives feedback to individuals about the collective effect of their behaviour. Because it deals with emergency services, it is a critical matter of timing and the genuine contribution to benefit others. It is uplifting. It is effective. It is practical. It is also a realisation of an ideal. It signals what is possible.

What does it take to put this into action? I would like to offer this service entirely free, but realistically it will cost a few thousand pounds to pay for the social artists involved. The initiative can also only go ahead at the nod of a few people in power positions. By providing this service, social artists prove themselves, and I believe they are in a position to ask for financial reward and more importantly recommendation after the benefits have been proven. It is important that there is money flow following this so that social artists can offer their services free in other situations. It is not about making money, but it is essential that money does flow as a consequence (cf Fun_d Stream).

$10000 is the figure I came up with to fund the bunch of individuals needed for the month. It also means that organisations can take the process seriously rather than just think it is a silly idea and dismiss our ability to self-organise such a solution. We are willing to put our money where our ideals are.

Please leave a comment if you want to get involved in any way.