People in mobility advocacy and traffic safety have known this issue for a very long time, and it’s never been popular to say publicly. Nobody wants to bad mouth the fire department. Nobody, myself included, questions the hard work of firefighters, from the volunteers, to the emergency service responders (EMT), to the marshals and chiefs, who save lives every day through rescue and preventative measures.

But this topic needs to be out in the open, because there’s been a hidden conflict going in city halls across the nation between resolving the escalating issue of traffic mortality and fire officials trying to keep streets as wide and open as possible for swift fire response time. Our fire codes regarding street designs is increasingly contradictory to public safety, and enforcement is too arbitrary.

This conflict came to a head in Berkeley, California this week. Our street festivals that have existed for generations in the same places were, out of the blue, canceled by the leadership of our fire department (although by which officials is unclear). One fair, (Telegraph) on a small, one-way street that will be eventually pedestrianized, and the other (Juneteeth) on an 80-foot wide, 6-lane stroad. For months, no explanation was given to the public as to why. Instead, unclear explanations were finally given by city staff, claiming: “unprecedented amount of [high density] housing” warranted wider streets and no street festivals on small streets as part of a “renewed focus” on the state fire code.

Putting aside that dense cities around the world in high-income nations have the liveliest street festivals, this rule was being applied to quadrants of Berkeley largely unchanged with new housing. Moreover, our downtown farmer’s market adjacent to a park had to cut the market in half and maintain a 26-foot wide road space. A bewildered public and city council asked why this was happening. The fire department, through city officials, argued that Appendix D of the state fire code — requiring streets with a building taller than 3 stories to have at least a 26-foot street width of through traffic — mandated this change.

First, Appendix D in the state fire code is an optional code meant to be tailored for jurisdictions’ unique features. A street clearance of that sort exists so that fire trucks can use apparatuses to reach taller buildings and so that space is clear for emergency vehicles to get through streets. The intent is logical, but the U.S. fire code encourages sprawl by discouraging tall buildings and mandating wide roadways in front of each house. Thus, the code has flexibility intended for prewar cities not designed this way. Why was our fire department enforcing this rule for the first time and unilaterally, without any review by our fire and safety commissioners?