Locating an ambulance on the Amherst Campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo

The authors used past call-data statistics and a network representation of the Amherst Campus of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo to find a dynamic positioning strategy for the campus ambulance. As measure of performance they used the system-wide average response time to a call. The authors solved one-median problems on several network ‘states’ to determine optimal locations for the ambulance. To conclude their research effort, they validated the model. Models are not truth-the 30-percent savings predicted by the present model evaporated during the test, which gave a mere six-percent savings. This seemingly odd result is explained by the ‘elbow’ relationship between travel time and travel distance, a relationship empirically postulated by the RAND fire project team in 1979.