so frustrating to drive in germany and then come back to the us with so many inconsiderate idiots around.
When traffic comes to a standstill, drivers instantly shift left and right to create a Rettungsgasse, an emergency corridor right down the middle, so ambulances
Submitted 3 weeks ago by Valuy@lemmy.zip to videos@lemmy.world
https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/6bbca761bf2f.mp4
Comments
pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
FenrirIII@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Go drive in an Asian country and come back. The difference is incredible
ramble81@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Honestly I blame speed limits. On the autobahn you know “if you’re slower, move over”. In the US, inevitably there is someone camping the left lane saying “I’m doing the limit so i have every right to use this as the long distance lane”
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Buuut if they’re going the speed limit, how are you supposed to overtake them anyway?
liuther9@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
He is right. Do not cross the speed limit or make others cross it. Or if you are really in hurry just use right lane don’t be beemer guy
ieGod@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
It still boils down to individual vs collective importance and values.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Yeah, in the US there’s zero chance that opening isn’t filled by drivers who think they’re more important than everyone else.
glimse@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well yeah… Because it doesn’t look like people are making room for an emergency vehicle lol
Without context I wouldn’t know what was going on here. US law tells you to pull over to the same side so my first thought wasn’t emergency vehicles. I couldn’t blame a US driver for not knowing German road law
Strider@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Drive rush hour here daily, you’ll notice we have a fair share of our own inconsiderate idiots here.
Oh and literal reckless murderers.
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I had a very similar feeling moving back from driving in The Netherlands to driving in Portugal.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
In America it would instantly be filled by cunts trying to cheat their way through traffic.
lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
In Germany, we have laws for that.
zergtoshi@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
…which are enforced?
Because that’s one major issue with the legal system of the USA.needanke@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
But it’s still an issue.
FatVegan@leminal.space 2 weeks ago
In america they have guns for that
Serinus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We literally have this. We call it the “shoulder”.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
And idiots try to drive on it to skip traffic.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Right? Around here, each side of a divided highway has two travel lanes marked. But they also have room for three full lanes and a narrow breakdown/emergency lane.
The extra space is intended for future construction. By repainting the lines and installing a temporary k-rail median, they can shift a travel lane across the normal median, close a lane, keep two travel lanes in each directions, and still preserve adequate (but narrowed) shoulders for emergency traffic.
needanke@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Using a the shoulder for emergency vehicles is not as good, as they are usually smaller and they are the place where those with damaged vehicles should stop. This means you cannot go as fast on them as you can in the lane shown in the video.
coolie4@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Exactly. They have to split the red sea like this in countries like Germany because there is no shoulder. Even in the video you can see if they go off to the side they’re ending up in a ditch.
Bluewing@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Even drivers in the US are good about it 99.9% of the time if there is anywhere to go, they do get out of the way and stay out of the way. There are heavy fines. And if the Amp-a-Lamps driver can get your plate number, the cops WILL go look for you.
Source: I spent nearly 20 years in Amber-Lamps and fire trucks.
notsosure@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
That’s the plan. In real life, only few ambulances manage “to fly through”, there are always some jerks ignoring this rule.
chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
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.
claimsou@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The photo example is extreme. It’s usually narrower.
stupidcasey@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Prisoners dilemma always wins.
diaphanous@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Yeah but not in the way I think you mean: ncase.me/trust/
Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
- Prisoners dilemma doesn’t work when people are thinking of tomorrow. Once you take into consideration how your actions affect the decisions other people make in the future, it is always better to cooperate. That’s a big assumption from people, but if they don’t, they are not acting rationally in their own interest like in the dilemma.
- I’m pretty sure this comment is not complaining about people driving through the gap, it’s about people who are too absent minded to create a gap in the first place. In that case that’s not prisoners dilemma at all, they don’t get anything from not moving to the side.
KatherinaReichelt@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
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?
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This would require people capable of thinking and having empathy for others
Noodle07@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well that’s what we teach children here 🤷
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Here in America you’d get people peeling through the middle
Leg@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
That’s what’s amazing to me. Every single driver resisting the urge to cut the line when the opportunity is right there? Couldn’t be America.
matlag@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
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?
Formfiller@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Our culture is narcissism
homura1650@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Around here, emergency vehicles just drive in the shoulder when this happens.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
We Brits got rid of a lot of them (and laughably called them “smart” motorways), so now we just sit there and watch people burn.
Avicenna@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
I know atleast one country where half the people there would try to use that corridor. So yea it requires some couple levels in civilization.
deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
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.
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Excuse me, your honor, full of youths.
EmpatheticTeddyBear@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I understood that reference
NotJohnSmith@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
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
deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
Letting busses out: awesome.
It’s actually really relaxing and de-stressing to be a considerate driver… right up until the ass tailgating you gets all uppity.
hzl@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
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”.
marius@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Driving through the rettungsgasse is punished very heavily though
Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Americans literally do the same thing…
Avicenna@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
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
Underwaterbob@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Same! Are you in Korea?
Avicenna@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
nope turns out there is more than one in that case
chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
The intrusive thought to just pull out and gun it down that road is fucking strong.
real_squids@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
i see that regularly, when an ambulance carves out a lane there’s always one or two impatient mfs following it
a_wild_mimic_appears@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
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
chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I mean that’s why it’s an intrusive thought instead of a good idea.
favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
The asshole is strong in this one. You must be an American.
chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
There’s a reason I called it an intrusive thought…
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Might be legal if you’re on a motorcycle. If it isn’t, it should be. No reason to not allow lane filtering.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
A fast moving vehicle bearing down on an accident site? Nope.
breadsmasher@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
thats seemingly what we do in britain!
Zahille7@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“High-ho, Silver! AWAAaYyYy!”
Fondots@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
wait hold on. i don’t see an emergency vehicle. you just do this because traffic is stopped?
SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
hkw do you think it would work if they only did it when there was an ambulance?
crapwittyname@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
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.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Same way as in statesia. It wouldn’t
Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I mean that’s kinda what we do in France and it works mostly fine I think ?
djdarren@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
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.
fizzle@quokk.au 2 weeks ago
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.
andrewta@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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
Ophrys@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
That’s crazy, all these suckers waiting while there is an open lane right there!!
rDrDr@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
How can there be traffic if there are two empty lanes? We’ve already added more lanes, the traffic has been solved. If the ambulance needs to get through, they should add a fifth lane. (/s)
treadful@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
A+ happy German narration.
cabillaud@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
In Paris, government people and/or VIP use fake ambulances to take advantage of this and avoid beeing stuck with us peons.
radiofreebc@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ve seen this happen, and it almost looked like that exact spot. I feel like this is between Berlin and Wittstock.
delikt@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
As an Austrian, this works good but not always so good as it should
Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yep, we do not have the wide ass shoulders on our Autobahn network. We also know how to merge using the entire merging lane and the zipper effect. In the USA, it’s cross the white line at lower speeds to create an accordion effect.
lyrial@anarchist.nexus 2 weeks ago
People might not like me pointing this out, and, admittedly I’ve never been to Germany, but doing such a thing does not matter in the US since there seems to be no real shoulder to this road. Anywhere in the US, whatever emergency vehicles that need to get to places don’t require this at all - they will drive by on the shoulder of the road at break neck speeds even if no car has moved on that road in the last 10 minutes.
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Lol.
Sorry, it’s just… Have any of you seen LA freeway lane widths?
This doesn’t work everywhere. Love the idea, though!!
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
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…?
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
HubertManne@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Lucifer! We can’t even keep cars from blasting down the shoulder.
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
This is how I’ve always seen things done in the US, tbh.
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
But why do they need 2 lanes?
meldrik@lemmy.wtf 2 weeks ago
It’s always a pleasure to drive on the German autobahn, unless I meet a fellow Dane on it 😂
doingthestuff@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
What would they do if it was five lanes each direction?
julianwgs@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
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.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rettungsgasse
NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
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!
Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
That push in Germany got wider EU traction & it’s finally starting to be the norm in the main countries too (not just for when the traffic stops completely but even in cases of slow moving traffic like below 60 or maybe 80km/h).
Thx!
nonfuinoncuro@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
damn that is a long article