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I didn‘t see any comment mentioning this, but not creating an emergency lane only 10 years ago was a huge problem in Germany. Then the government increased the fines massively and started a big awareness campaign. It took several years, but now it is the norm.
Intervention and change is possible as long as their is political will.
Interesting. I was going to reply that I have been in plenty of traffic jams on the Autobahn that did not have such a lane, but that was indeed more than 10 years ago!
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
Yeah, in the US there's zero chance that opening isn't filled by drivers who think they're more important than everyone else.
In America it would instantly be filled by cunts trying to cheat their way through traffic.
In Germany, we have laws for that.
...which are enforced?
Because that's one major issue with the legal system of the USA.
If you block the ambulance in Germany, you get punished nowadays.
Whether video evidence of driving through it without blocking an ambulance is enough? I don't know.
They are enforced.
Source: I spent nearly 20 years as a medic and a firefighter. And I have had cops arrest and ticket drivers for driving HUA, (Head Up Ass around emergency vehicles.) It's an easy ticket.
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.
Americans would be too angry about the one or two cars or motorcycles that might occasionally take advantage to be able to do this. Even merging results in a lot of grumpy drivers trying to prevent "cutting".
Driving through the rettungsgasse is punished very heavily though
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.
I must be broken as often I'll let a bus out expressly thinking that a vehicle with 20 people in has to be more important than me.
I'm not in the US thou
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.
As a german I'm always flabbergasted when people from other countries are amazed by that. It makes sense to do that - help get's faster to the accident and therefore the road will be cleared much faster than if the emergency services are stuck somewhere in the traffic jam. Do you have this strange behavior in other parts of your daily life, too?
This would require people capable of thinking and having empathy for others
Our culture is narcissism
In the US? You mean other than keeping the shittiest health care system in the world just to be sure no money would go to someone who can't pay?
meanwhile if you did this in my home country, half the people there would just pass to the corridor never questioning for a single second why that corridor exists and why all the others are not using it
Here in the UK we do something similar, though not until we see the flashing lights. We pull across as far as we can in order to allow as much space as possible.
That is the law in the US as well. TWICE I've seen someone ignore it and both times other citizens (in cars as well as pedestrians) bully the driver into following it.
Driver: I didn't have anywhere to go!
Bike messenger: Turn into the fuckin alley or I'm breaking all your lights
wait hold on. i don't see an emergency vehicle. you just do this because traffic is stopped?
how do you think it would work if they only did it when there was an ambulance?
That's how it works in the UK. You see a blue light in your rearview, then everyone tries to find space and the emergency vehicle proceeds at a clip of 5-10mph, while the affected people ahead burn/bleed etc.
Yes, we are taught to move left or right to create a middle lane during a traffic jam.
The intrusive thought to just pull out and gun it down that road is fucking strong.
i see that regularly, when an ambulance carves out a lane there's always one or two impatient mfs following it
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 dont get it.
Here the shoulder is traversable. Like its wide enough to drive down.
We dont do this because emergency services just drive down the shoulder.
What would you prefer? An uninterrupted lane or one where you have to get past broken down cars/merging traffic, ...
In a situation where every second can count, it's easy to see why Germany (among other countries) does this.
The shoulders in Germany and to my understanding most of Europe are used to give broken down vehicles space to change a tire or wait for service in safety, or to allow construction site to move the lanes to the sides without merging. Traffic jams are often a result of to much traffic, construction or accidents and often enough cause cars to break down. Hence the shoulders are often blocked in situations, where the emergency vehicles are needed. Also, there are many, of not most, streets without shoulders. The Autobahn/ National routes being the exception.
Also the shoulders in Germany, the US and UK are in my experience rather bumpy. So driving in them at full speed can be a bit risky.
I thing the argument for this method is that it is universal: traffic is not moving? Move over and make space and allow emergency vehicles to pass through at full speed.