BATON ROUGE - For EMS workers, getting to someone quickly is vital, but at times, traffic can impact drive times.

"Traffic's just a part of our job," Brad Harris with EMS said.

Data provided by EMS shows the number of calls received annually. It also shows the hours of the day that get the heaviest call volume.

"It does seem like over the past 18 years that we've had more traffic congestion than normal," Harris said.

In Baton Rouge, Harris says they receive about 100 to 150 calls in a twelve-hour shift. The data shows that most calls happen on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.

"There are lots of construction projects around town and businesses popping up around town," Harris said. "As you have these apartments and new businesses, you're going to have more traffic in areas you may not have typically had traffic in before. It is something to contend with."

There are multiple traffic projects around the parish, which Harris says adds another layer of obstacles, such as when drivers need to move over to another lane to allow ambulances to pass.

"On the highways as well, there's a big project on Plank Road right now, and that's got the lanes reduced," Harris said. "Anytime that we have to run through a construction zone, we have to go slower for the construction workers, and then you have the cones and the barricades to deal with."

Harris says there are roughly 20 ambulances active and available in Baton Rouge.

"Let's say six or eight of them are tied up at a hospital, waiting to offload patients, then you might have an ambulance coming from a different part of the parish," Harris said." If you're in Zachary, our closest ambulance might be in the middle of the parish."

To reduce times, Harris says EMS is working to cover more ground, like with the newest station on Connell's Village Lane. It'll help cover areas that may have been harder to reach before, and on Saturdays, football crowds add a challenge.

"We'll actually deploy ASAP vehicles or four-wheel drive vehicles, and you might see them if you're at LSU or Southern," Harris said.