Empirical Analysis of Ambulance Travel Times: The Case of Calgary Emergency Medical Services

Using administrative data for high-priority calls in Calgary, Alberta, we estimate how ambulance travel times depend on distance. We find that a logarithmic transformation produces symmetric travel-time distributions with heavier tails than those of a normal distribution. Guided by nonparametric estimates of the median and coefficient of variation, we demonstrate that a previously proposed model for mean fire engine travel times is a valid and useful description of median ambulance travel times. We propose a new specification for the coefficient of variation, which decreases with distance. We illustrate how the resulting travel-time distribution model can be used to create probability-of-coverage maps for diagnosis and improvement of system performance.

• 저널Management Science · 56(4) · 716–723
• 토픽Urban and Freight Transport Logistics · Building and Construction
• DOI10.1287/mnsc.1090.1142
• 저자Susan Budge, Ármann Ingólfsson, Dawit Zerom