Quite a few houses in P.G. still don’t have house numbers displayed even though its been years since that came into effect here.
Those brass numbers look classy but they are very hard to read at night.

With the GPS coupled with GIS systems they have in police as well as firetrucks, they should be able to find the locations quite easily. They should even be hooked into something like Google’s streetview, although the updates can be a couple or years or more old. They have been through PG twice already.

My GPS does a very good job of locating most addresses.

As far as someone driving around the city without the aid of a GPS, many house numbers are certainly obscure, but so are many street signs. In some cities, major street intersections are market very clearly. For people new to town, or unfamiliar with sections in the city, following directions can be a challenge.

Remember, cell phones are not the only reasons for drivers paying less attention to driving that they should. Anyone driving behind someone going considerably slower than normal traffic in a subdivision, making sudden turns into side streets, making u-turns, etc. knows there is less attention being paid to driving and others on the road.

GPS is only as good as the data put into it. It is still subject to error, especially for rural addresses.

It is even worse for PO Box numbers …. ;-)

PO BOX is not a physical address.

I thought I would offer a couple of comments on this. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I used to work in public safety and emergency services and was the Chief Communications Officer for Prince George Fire Rescue before having to move to Kelowna (I am no longer in the fire service but am still involved in public safety as a consultant). I was also BC Ambulance Service basic life support paramedic for five years.

Civic addressing can be a challenge for both emergency dispatch centres and field response crews. Dispatch centres use computer aided dispatch (CAD) applications that offer a number of enhancements and efficiencies over legacy paper based map systems. However, these CAD systems are linked to the TELUS 9-1-1 data system as that is required, in part, to provide the correct routing of the 9-1-1 call to the appropriate dispatch centre (police, fire, or ambulance). These interconnections are somewhat complex and it is more complicated than using a commercial based GIS application for routing. Typically, the dispatch centre CAD software is also connected to the mobile data terminals in the emergency response vehicles in order to provide both the incident location and other relevant data for the emergency responders (e.g. hazardous materials on site, etc.). Lastly, this issue becomes even more complex as dispatch centre CAD applications (such as ambulance and fire) are becoming interconnected in order to more efficiently provide emergency calls and data.

As dispatch centres serve large geographical areas involving multiple cities, the CAD systems must be able to deal with issues such as duplicate road names, sometimes within the same community, as well as non-sequential address ranges. Civic addressing requires and extensive amount of coordination not only within a jurisdiction but between and among jurisdictions; many roads and highways run through multiple municipalities and regional districts and there needs to be coordination of this addressing.

The dispatchers are required to receive, process, and dispatch emergency calls in a timely manner (in accordance with North American performance standards) and then the responding crews are faced with the challenges of trying to locate the house, business, etc. This is more of a challenge when addresses are not posted or are not posted in a manner that can be easily seen.

One of the most important things the public can do it to ensure their civic address is properly posted.

It’s about time they did this! Years ago, the West Fraser fire department made number signs for all the homes within their service area. Most are still there, but over the years they have fallen down or been removed. I see too many homes in Quesnel without numbers, and hard to find at night. Put your street number under your porch light, where it can be seen. Perhaps the city should make a grant available for residents to purchase the ones that are solar powered and light up at night. Would sure be helpful in looking for addresses for everyone, not just emergency services!

It seems like common sense, but I’ll bet that some of these people who don’t make an effort to number their homes are the first to complain if something goes wrong or the ambulance takes longer than it would have otherwise.

Good ol’ GPS will put you in a lake or up an unused logging road and in one case a path where yer van can break down and while your SO walks away for help you can wait in the van for 48 days. As for addresses please consider the potential for earthquakes down south. Like I said when that happens everybody and his brother are gonna head up to these parts. Advice? Put an eight or a couple of eights in yer new address. Apparently eight is a superstitious good number for some folks. Superstition equals more $$$$ when it come s to real estate sales. Carry on.

As they say, garbage in, garbage out …. or the corollary of that … nothing in, nothing out.

Tell me, what do the emergency services people do when they drive around town while not on a call. I understand that those are repeated familiarization tours.

Perhaps they have their GPS on and can check obstructions along the travel path. While they are doing that, they can also check on residential changes, correct house numbers, etc.

The City’s GIS system, which can be viewed on PGMAP by anyone who cares to have look has civic addresses on each piece of property which has been assigned one. City staff have done that work over the last 15 to 20 years that they have had that system. If emergency services in the city to do not have access to that, there is something wrong with the notion that we may be paying 2 or three times for the best available database.

http://princegeorge.ca/cityservices/online/pgmap/Pages/Default.aspx

Here is an image of the gps system carried in fire trucks in PG. If one cannot find an address with that, especially after touring around the city and finding trouble spots, then I think we are in deep doodoo.

http://i60.tinypic.com/28sr42g.jpg

Maybe if the fire truck picked up the pizza guy on the way to the fire maybe they could save money on high tech toys.

It’s really not rocket science. As part of the training process, fire rescue members have to memorize every street in town. Put your address where it’s visible and don’t overthink things…

When I drove cab, it was always a problem at night to find an address. With GPS, it would get you close and looking on the correct side of the street, but there’s three houses close, and you can’t see the address to be sure. You really don’t want to be shining your spot lamp on all the houses at 2 in the morning. Make the address visible, how tough is that?

I think that what Quesnel-North Cariboo is doing is great, and should be done everywhere people live who might be subject to an emergency vehicle visit. What gus says may be fine in a city, assuming the city is laid out in a logical, methodical manner, and assuming the city has plumped for gps in their fire trucks. kmeldrum and taxi have it straight, in the dark of night, it can be difficult to see the numbers, if they are even there. Worse if it is raining or snowing. In the rural districts, not everybody displays a street or road number, for some reason, (are you hiding from the law?)and 911 dispatch can usually only put you close to the location of the call. Sometimes you go back and forth, perhaps using a process of elimination, to find the address. Sometimes minutes saved can save a life. Heck, it might be yours. Go out and see if your house or property number can be seen from a moving vehicle; at night, in inclement weather. Are there trees blocking it? Do you HAVE numbers displayed? might be time to do that.
metalman.

Exactly right Metalman.

Taxi