The police department's goal is to arrive at an emergency within three minutes, but sometimes traffic prevents that. We won't get bogged down in heavy traffic, and that does happen now. Police have advantages over firefighters in terms of response times. They patrol the city, and so often respond from the field, where they are usually nearer to a given emergency call. Firefighters respond from a central location on Vernon Street, a block from Central Square, except for the several hours a day that a fire truck and ambulance are stationed in West Keene.
Police cars are also much smaller than fire trucks, and significantly easier to maneuver in traffic.
Other than faster response times, police say, the biggest benefit of bypass expansion may be prevention of accidents. In general, car accidents that injure people have remained steady over the past few years in Keene. The city had 153 injury-causing accidents in 1990, and 161 in 1996. But some intersections in Keene and Swanzey have more accidents than others. Eleven of the most dangerous will be redesigned during the bypass expansion.