Anecdotally, 40-ish years ago, one of my mom’s relatives came to visit from Poland. There are a whole lot of wild stories about that visit and from when my mom visited Poland around that same time that highlighted a lot of differences between life in the US and from behind the iron curtain at the time.
While he was here, her relative was amazed to see cars pulling off to the side to let emergency vehicles pass, that was apparently something totally new to him.
so frustrating to drive in germany and then come back to the us with so many inconsiderate idiots around.
Go drive in an Asian country and come back. The difference is incredible
The idea that another road user might have higher priority is unfortunately anathema to drivers here.
If this even happened here the corridor would simply be full of utes.
Excuse me, your honor, full of youths.
This needs to be taught in the US and it needs to be enforced. If there’s two lanes on the road.(And I mean, two lanes going one way two lanes going the other way) Then, if it comes to a standstill everybody part so you have a center area that emergency services could drive in
Doing something for the good of people I don’t even know? Sounds dangerously close to socialism! /s
Do emergency vehicles have right of way in the US? Ive seen so many videos of people blocking fire trucks and ambulances. A guy i knew got a hefty fine here in Norway for driving behind an ambulance. We don’t do like the germans, but we immediately make way for all blue lights
Logical, reasonable people do. Entitled ass holes usually do not move.
Legally, yes, it’s even in the info they give at the DMV and I’ve even seen some people pull to the side (if for no other reason to copy those in front of them) but I know if we left an opening in the center in standstill traffic, some asshole would zoom down it almost immediately. And then probably several more, because again, they just copy each other.
Enforced is the big thing. I don’t know why police departments keep getting more money, thr money is right there on the highway waiting for them to get it. Every time drive I see people crossing the double white, abusing the big lane, speeding, swerving, even road raging. We have enough police in my city that there could be a cop in each directly every half mile of all of our interstates and they would make a huge profit. Just enforce the freaking laws we already have. Guaranteed they’ll make that budget shortfall.
And we haven’t even gotten into the whole “Drib up to ten over because no one cares”
That’s the plan. In real life, only few ambulances manage “to fly through”, there are always some jerks ignoring this rule.
Probably still massively speeds up response times though. I imagine it wouldn’t be that hard to squeeze 2 cars in that given space allowing the emergency vehicle to get past the person not following the rules.
The photo example is extreme. It’s usually narrower.
Still though, Ive seen traffic in NYC keep an ambulance for two lights.
Well, it’s a high-speed 3-lane road that would fit 5 parked cars curb to curb so Rettungsgasse is where the space goes. Most other roads can barely yield 1 lane but emergency drivers are skilled and European fire trucks are not 1.5 lanes wide; still better to use a narrow free lane between 2 stationary ones rather than one of 2 crawling ones
The intrusive thought to just pull out and gun it down that road is fucking strong.
Which gets fucking expensive quick, because it’s illegal and the probability is high that police and / or ambulance already are at the end of your race track
I mean that’s why it’s an intrusive thought instead of a good idea.
i see that regularly, when an ambulance carves out a lane there’s always one or two impatient mfs following it
thats seemingly what we do in britain!
Might be legal if you’re on a motorcycle. If it isn’t, it should be. No reason to not allow lane filtering.
The asshole is strong in this one. You must be an American.
Lucifer! We can’t even keep cars from blasting down the shoulder.
Okay but what if I have to take a major shit, is it cool if I skip ahead to the next exit? I get that the idea is everyone is making it safer on the off chance an emergency vehicle needs to go by, but we got this wide open strip, so if someone has a (minor) emergency, are they a jerk for taking advantage of it to get off the road, or…?
but what if I have to take a major shit
Great news, theres a ditch right beside where you stopped, and you said it was an emergency.
Nyo its not cool and in highways accidents, the ambulances will usually be followed by police and you will get pulled over and fined.
Using emergency lights and sirens is vastly unnecessary.
It is clearly much more dangerous to the ambulance crew & patient. Not to mention the other people that might be injured in an accident related to an emergency response.
It is clearly much more dangerous to the ambulance crew & patient
How so?
Crash statistics clearly indicate the danger of emergency responses. It’s simple common sense to understand how dangerous it is to navigate a road full of drivers that can be unpredictable.
Easy to research the info. Go look.
So you’re pulling it out of your ass. Cool.
No, dumbass. Crash statistics are 2X for emergency vehicles running with lights and sirens.
You clearly don’t have the brain capacity to grasp simple logic.
GFY.
