Good morning. It's Friday. We'll look at how an artificial intelligence project could help the Fire Department cut response times for firefighters and ambulances. We'll also look at Donald Trump's brief testimony at his defamation trial.
Fighting a fire is one thing. Getting firefighters and emergency medical workers to a burning building, or to an address where someone needs help, is another challenge. That is why the Fire Department wants to apply artificial intelligence technology to traffic patterns and, eventually, to helping fire crews take the fastest routes. A project involving research by a seven-university consortium called C2SMARTER comes amid concerns that traffic is making response times longer. "Every second counts when it comes to emergency response," Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said. "Shorter response times are directly linked to better outcomes." The department acknowledges that response times have grown — and blames traffic in the city's changing streetscape. A Fire Department spokeswoman said the average response time for medical emergencies, the calls that demand the most immediate attention, was 7 minutes 59 seconds last year, 1 minute 14 seconds slower than in 2013. The response time for what the Fire Department classifies as "structural fires" — anything other than a brush fire, a car fire or a transit system fire — was 4 minutes 31 seconds last year, 25 seconds slower than in 2013. One possible explanation is that fire trucks and ambulances face more obstacles than they used to. The streetscape is different now, with more protected bicycle and bus lanes, as well as outdoor dining sheds. All of them take up space on streets, which means that there is less maneuvering room for fire trucks and ambulances and less room for ordinary cars and trucks to move out of their way. "Travel time — when you can be on the scene — is critically important to your firefighting operations or your emergency medical procedures," said Rebecca Mason, an assistant fire commissioner. But time has become more critical lately. Fires involving rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which provide power for e-bikes and e-scooters, often begin abruptly and spread rapidly. But she said that such devices are not the only potential problem firefighters face. "The modern building environment has created situations with materials where there are much more dangerous fires than in the past," she said. "The materials we have are far more susceptible to becoming engulfed in flames more quickly." C2SMARTER, which is led by the transportation center at the N.Y.U. Tandon School of Engineering, plans to analyze the travel times for emergency vehicles. The researchers will take real-time traffic data from cameras and sensors, along with data from fire trucks and ambulances and from the navigation app Waze, in a 30-block section of Harlem, from West 110th Street to West 140th Street, west of Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Mason said that area had been chosen for study because "we thought it was a good representation of many parts of the city, particularly those that experience congestion."
Once they have assembled the data, the researchers will build a "digital twin," a computerized replica of the area. Joseph Chow, the associate director of C2SMARTER and the principal investigator on the project, noted that communities like Harlem had been underserved in the past, so they could reap especially significant benefits if emergency vehicles answered their 911 calls faster. "What we're trying to replicate" with the digital twin, he said, "is how the vehicles move through that particular neighborhood" — cars, trucks, bicycles, e-bikes and scooters. C2SMARTER will do that with software, simulating traffic delays in the 30-block zone, along with ways to avoid the tie-ups. "Given the decisions that emergency response teams make in sending out vehicles for an incident," Chow said, "we want to help them make predictions about whether or not a particular route they take or a certain strategy in dispatching different types of units can help or hinder their operations."
The researchers are counting on artificial intelligence to mimic drivers' behavior, including their reactions to sirens and flashing lights from a fire truck or an ambulance. Chow said that was important because "startlingly little information" had been collected about how ordinary drivers respond to those signals. The software "does not just mimic traffic conditions," said Jinqin Gao, the assistant director of research at C2SMARTER. "It mimics response from other vehicles to emergency vehicles and how emergency vehicles behave in the real world." WEATHER Expect a chance of rain and fog, with temperatures in the upper 40s. At night, it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 39 degrees. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Feb. 9 (Lunar New Year's Eve).
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This time, Donald Trump spent less than five minutes on the witness stand. His lawyer called him as a witness in the defamation trial involving a lawsuit brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll, a civil case that grew out of her accusation that Trump had raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. It was the second time in two weeks that Trump had appeared in court in his own defense: On Jan. 11, he spoke his mind as his monthslong civil fraud trial was wrapping up, describing himself as "an innocent man" and insulting the judge. On Thursday, his lawyer, Alina Habba, asked Trump if he stood by what he had said during a deposition in which he called Carroll a liar. "One hundred percent, yes," Trump said. "She said something; I consider it a false accusation." Trump's brief appearance came after much debate before the trial over whether the judge, Lewis Kaplan, should take steps to ensure that Trump did not stray from the single issue in the case — damages. Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, had written to the judge, saying that Trump might see a political benefit "from intentionally turning this trial into a circus." In the end, both sides seemed to achieve their goals. Trump answered a handful of questions from Habba, and he did not embark on a rant about Carroll, who is seeking at least $10 million from the former president. The Carroll case is being tried before a jury in federal court, unlike the civil fraud case, which will be decided solely by Justice Arthur Engoron in State Supreme Court. The identities of the jurors have been kept secret on orders from Judge Kaplan, who even suggested that they not share their real names with one another. He said in a pretrial ruling that he wanted to guard against attempts to influence or harass them by Trump or his supporters. The jurors have given no real clues about how they see the case that unfolded before them. The only issue they will decide is how much Trump must pay Carroll for comments he made in June 2019, after Carroll, in a book excerpt published in New York magazine, first accused him of assault. Trump called her claim "totally false" and said that he had never met her and that she was merely trying to sell her book. METROPOLITAN DIARY Sudden stops
Dear Diary: I was in Manhattan walking behind a woman who was walking her dog. The dog stopped suddenly, and I almost bumped into both of them. I began to apologize. The woman turned toward me and smiled. "No brake lights," she said. We both laughed. About a half-hour later, I was on the checkout line at Trader Joe's. I began to move forward and then stopped. The woman behind me bumped me gently with her shopping cart. She began to apologize. I turned around and smiled. "No brake lights," I said. — Carey Horwitz Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you on Monday. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: Can A.I. help the fire trucks show up sooner?
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