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?
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 21 hours ago by Valuy@lemmy.zip to videos@lemmy.world
https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/6bbca761bf2f.mp4
Comments
KatherinaReichelt@feddit.org 3 hours ago
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Here in America you’d get people peeling through the middle
Leg@sh.itjust.works 2 hours 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.
homura1650@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Around here, emergency vehicles just drive in the shoulder when this happens.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 hours 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.
hzl@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 hours 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”.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
wait hold on. i don’t see an emergency vehicle. you just do this because traffic is stopped?
SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
hkw do you think it would work if they only did it when there was an ambulance?
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Same way as in statesia. It wouldn’t
kuerbiskernoel@feddit.org 2 hours ago
Yes
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
this makes my “i must sort my wires into different lengths and colors” gland so very happy. i must learn your ways.
doingthestuff@lemy.lol 1 hour ago
What would they do if it was five lanes each direction?
int_not_found@feddit.org 42 minutes ago
Everyone goes to the right, except the left most lane. They go to the left. This is independent of the number of lanes.
rDrDr@lemmy.world 2 hours 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)
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 14 hours ago
In America it would instantly be filled by cunts trying to cheat their way through traffic.
lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com 12 hours ago
In Germany, we have laws for that.
zergtoshi@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
…which are enforced?
Because that’s one major issue with the legal system of the USA.needanke@feddit.org 6 hours ago
But it’s still an issue.
FatVegan@leminal.space 9 hours ago
In america they have guns for that
Bluewing@lemmy.world 3 hours 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.
Serinus@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
We literally have this. We call it the “shoulder”.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 7 hours ago
And idiots try to drive on it to skip traffic.
needanke@feddit.org 6 hours 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.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 12 hours 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.
coolie4@lemmy.world 8 hours 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.
pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 19 hours ago
so frustrating to drive in germany and then come back to the us with so many inconsiderate idiots around.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 9 hours 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 6 hours 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
FenrirIII@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Go drive in an Asian country and come back. The difference is incredible
ramble81@lemmy.zip 14 hours 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 12 hours ago
Buuut if they’re going the speed limit, how are you supposed to overtake them anyway?
liuther9@lemmy.world 14 hours 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
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
I had a very similar feeling moving back from driving in The Netherlands to driving in Portugal.
notsosure@sh.itjust.works 20 hours 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 20 hours 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 19 hours ago
The photo example is extreme. It’s usually narrower.
stupidcasey@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Prisoners dilemma always wins.
diaphanous@feddit.org 8 hours ago
Yeah but not in the way I think you mean: ncase.me/trust/
Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 11 hours 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.
cabillaud@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
In Paris, government people and/or VIP use fake ambulances to take advantage of this and avoid beeing stuck with us peons.
Ophrys@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 hours ago
That’s crazy, all these suckers waiting while there is an open lane right there!!
needanke@feddit.org 6 hours ago
There are easier ways to say you drive a Mercedes.
luciferofastora@feddit.org 2 hours ago
Unless they’re my MIL, who was confused by the sight and, upon getting it explained to her, loudly exclaimed she’d never done that.
But I’m not sure if that was just an early spell of Dementia. I can’t fathom that she’s never seen it in fifty years of driving.
djdarren@piefed.social 9 hours 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.
glimse@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
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
zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
Just the other day I watched some luxury SUV sitting dumbfounded in a left turn lane with an ambulance flashing lights and blaring the horn behind it. Oh yeah, the left turn lane was the one that led to the emergency room parking lot. I wish that bike messenger was around then
HereIAm@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
And most time not until the blue lights are right up someone’s ass
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 3 hours ago
This is how I’ve always seen things done in the US, tbh.
InputZero@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
No you haven’t. I’ve never seen this. I regularly see people who use the shoulders as passing lanes the moment traffic slows a little bit. Then completely block them. I see drivers trying to get in front or behind an emergency vehicle to take advantage of the rest of the drivers moving to the side with a complete disregard for how they’re slowing everything down. I’ve seen drivers proudly park their car infront of an emergency vehicle and block them, then honk and flip the firetruck off for trying to pass them. I’ve seen drivers shoot at emergency responders because they were blocking the highway. I have never seen American drivers making an emergency lane.
marzhall@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
While I’ve never seen this, it’s worth noting that driving culture is pretty significantly different across the US even in the same state but different cities.
Merging in Philly? Bring your knife. Merging in Pittsburgh? They’ve already made room.
So it’s possible that this person at least sees more pleasant driving behavior wherever they’re at in the US.
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 1 hour ago
I always regret accidentally posting on lemmy.world.
lyrial@anarchist.nexus 5 hours 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.
umfk@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
In the picture the right most cars have switched to the shoulder to make the Rettungsgasse big. I forgot the exact reasons but the shoulder is not used for emergency vehicles on purpose.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 hours ago
I forgot the exact reasons but the shoulder is not used for emergency vehicles on purpose.
The shoulder has no shoulder. Probably not safe.
Servomoore@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Oh I had to do that once in a traffic jam in Minneapolis 2021.
deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 19 hours 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 18 hours ago
Excuse me, your honor, full of youths.
EmpatheticTeddyBear@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
I understood that reference
NotJohnSmith@feddit.uk 13 hours 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 13 hours 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.
fizzle@quokk.au 13 hours 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.
Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 hours ago
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.
fizzle@quokk.au 10 hours ago
loads of commenters in this thread are saying that when cars part it doesn’t form “an uninterrupted lane” because inevitably there are obstacles, like people who don’t do it, or don’t leave enough room, or what have you.
shoulders aren’t really littered with broken down cars.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 12 hours ago
We have an uninterrupted emergency lane.
We give our emergency traffic both the left and the right shoulder to get where they need to go. You give them one lane in the middle; we give them two lanes on the sides.
The left shoulder is an uninterrupted lane. The right shoulder is our breakdown lane.
Foofighter@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
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.
Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio 9 hours ago
We dont have shoulders here, on account of all the road construction.
Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 3 hours ago
The shoulders here are for “emergency stops” not “emergency vehicles”, an abundance could crash, drive over someone going for a piss, or get stuck behind a broken vehicle.
Also there is more change for debris in (less used) emergency lane than in the middle of the two inner lanes.
delikt@lemmy.zip 9 hours ago
As an Austrian, this works good but not always so good as it should
Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 3 hours ago
Long roadworks remain a problem too.
Fondots@lemmy.world 17 hours 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.
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
Lol.
Sorry, it’s just… Have any of you seen LA freeway lane widths?
This doesn’t work everywhere. Love the idea, though!!
needanke@feddit.org 6 hours ago
The system works for arbitrarily wide roads: Image illustrating how to create a “Rettungsgasse” on 2,3 and 4-Lane roads.
Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 3 hours ago
Over there they really do love to say ‘that’s brilliant but it’s absolutely impossible that would ever work over here in basically the same or easier situation bcs over here is not over there’.
remon@ani.social 3 hours ago
The system works for arbitrarily wide roads
No, only up to 5 lanes, then you’re out of fingers.
chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 20 hours ago
The intrusive thought to just pull out and gun it down that road is fucking strong.
a_wild_mimic_appears@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 hours 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 18 hours ago
I mean that’s why it’s an intrusive thought instead of a good idea.
treadful@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
A+ happy German narration.
andrewta@lemmy.world 19 hours 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
radiofreebc@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I’ve seen this happen, and it almost looked like that exact spot. I feel like this is between Berlin and Wittstock.
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 hours ago
But why do they need 2 lanes?
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 hours 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 20 hours 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 20 hours ago
Lucifer! We can’t even keep cars from blasting down the shoulder.
julianwgs@discuss.tchncs.de 8 hours 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
Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 3 hours 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!
NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net 7 hours 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!
nonfuinoncuro@lemmy.zip 5 hours ago
damn that is a long article