- cross-posted to:
- fuckcars@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- fuckcars@lemmy.world
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This is a funny clip and an accurate depiction of NYC congestion.
But, I live in a major city and we make way for ambulances. If it’s this bad we’ll end up with civilians running red lights or cops on motorbikes to unfuck gridlock.
I myself ran a red light last week in rush hour to GTFO when I hear sirens. Just turn on my hazards, slow roll into the red light. Cars were already stopping for me so I was safe, then pulled over.
This is really just making fun of NYC traffic and how fucked it is. The delivery makes it extra funny since we rarely get such an animated German on the front page.
Ja?
In case you wanna see a “RETTUNGSGASSE!!!” (= rescuing lane) in action this clip is what it looks like ideally. If traffic slows down for whatever reason or if there are sirens in the distance drivers are supposed to assume this formation pre-emptively and misusing it is a crime.
That’s how it’s supposed to work in the US too. Maybe it depends on the state but in MN at least it’s illegal to fail to pull over for emergency vehicles. If you see any emergency vehicle on the road running with lights on then you are supposed to stop and pull off to the side so that they can have the whole road.
The video in the OP looks nuts to me too. I’ve never seen people fail to pull over for an emergency vehicle in my area.
This is how it is in Manhattan when it’s busy. It’s not so much failing to pull over so much as there is nowhere to go.
This is a very NYC phenomenon, everywhere else I’ve ever been and lived in the US moves out of the way for emergency vehicles with their lights and sirens on, I’ve seen both issues where there is nowhere to go and times where people just don’t care, every time I’m in NYC I hope to not need medical attention
So I actually experienced one of these on 64W between VA Beach and Richmond. It was amazing how everyone including myself just instinctively moved to the sides of the road. It’s not a hard concept it just takes cooperation.
Also space to pull over is important. Here in the midwest we have room to move over and everyone does, honestly way more than is necessary. Like people start to pull over a few blocks in front of the ambulance if they just hear the siren.
New York’s problem in the video is the congestion makes it hard to move out of the way when there is nowhere to go.
At about 10 seconds on the video you can actually see a guy getting out of the way of the ambulance to let it through, though he was not doing it preemptively and the guy ahead of him couldn’t care less.
I speak perfect english but still use „ja”, ja?
Ja.
Ja.
Eh?
Tak.
Das ist der WegThis is the way, ja?
how else would we know he’s German
Ja sonst ist es nicht authentisch genug. Aber war schon witzig.
Wenn die Polizei vorbei fährt, ja! (ja)
dann halt ich erst mal an, ja! (ja)I assumed it was some weird YouTube thing he was doing. None of my German friends use that haha.
I get imense stress from having an ambulance behind me even if there’s plenty of room to pass on the side. Immediately plotting where to go if it needs to go exactly where I am.
I can’t imagine having an ambulance behind you and going ‘Meh, I’m driving here.’This happened to me once. It was a main road with heavy traffic. I pulled over to the right to let the ambulance pass, but because of traffic, I was effectively sitting on the right lane. Apparently the ambulance wanted to move to the right lane because they were gonna turn right at the corner up ahead. I felt like an asshole because to everyone else on the road, it looked like I intentionally blocked the ambulance. And the siren blaring right behind you while the driver is blasting the horn is very stressful.
nyc is a crazy city
If the ambulance is immediately behind you, you’ve already failed.
In “we’ll-behaving” countries ambulance does not lose speed. If you hear a siren, you pull over, doesn’t matter if you see it or not.
I’m not directing this at you, just explaning the course of action for people like in the video.
Ayyyy I’m driving here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hwGd3QWgTLs&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD
For contrast: a video of a more congested street in Paris 17 years ago. The situations aren’t completely comparable: bigger emergency vehicle, smaller other vehicles, smaller street with less options to get out of the way, … One other major difference and the reason I’m posting this, is that 30 seconds into the video, you can see that most drivers have moved to the sides of the road AHEAD of the firetruck and that they are holding still while waiting on the firetruck to pass them. The street + path are less than ideal and there isn’t really enough room, so the truck is still not going very fast, but it’s at least able to keep moving. By moving to the sides, the drivers also blocked in that smaller firetruck that was coming from the side street, so that’s going to cause some confusement after the big one has passed.
The reason that that NYC ambulance is completely stuck in traffic, isn’t because of space, because there is plenty compared to that Parisian street, but it’s the drivers who are not creating a path. It’s not an infrastructure problem, it’s something that can be taught + encouraged if there is a political will to make a change.
Distracted drivers are a serious problem in more ways than one. A couple weeks ago I was 2nd in line at a red light, only us 2 in that lane and several more in the other. An ambulance drove up behind us flashing and it was immediately clear the shortest path through the intersection was for our 2 cars to clear out. I put on my hazards and starting alternating lights and horn, while the person ahead sat blithely scrolling through their phone while the ambulance and I were both laying on the horn and didn’t move until the light turned green. Even then, didn’t pull aside so the bus had to weave around him. The lack of situational awareness and empathy on the road is sadly lacking.
I come and save you, ja?
You are being rescued. Please do not resist.
You are being billed. Please do not resist.
You do not have sufficient funds to be rescued. Your health will now be removed. Please do not resist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IQLk-LF1JY
haben sie was getrunken, ja! (ja) fragt mich die Polizei, ja! ja
Der polizist mit seinen elfenohren …
Scheiss Ohrwurm, ja?
So why not put paramedics on a e-bike, so they can actually arrive at the scene first. It’s not like the patient gets put into the ambulance immediately on arrival. Might as well have someone take care of the patient before the ambulance arrives. Just put a e-bike in the back of the ambulance or rack it on the front.
Shitty solution to a shitty problem in my opinion. Quite often patients are indeed put into the ambulance immediately. Ambulances also have tons of medical equipment, none of which you can fit on a bike, obviously. Then there’s the question of paramedic safety, especially given how many road accidents there are in the US. Plus, that would be a major cost for healthcare providers. Instead of 2 paramedics, you’d need 3 or 4, since they can’t go solo, again due to safety concerns. Overall this isn’t something we should be looking for alternative solutions to. You can’t keep making workarounds for systemic issues, like horrible road/traffic design or society being severely uneducated.
Our service uses bikes in highly urban areas, but I can’t speak to the pros or cons of it as I don’t have the brain power right now. It’s a large service, but not anywhere near a significant part of the service. Urban stuff, large gatherings stuff, terrain stuff with quads and even a boat.
They carry 100lbs of gear.
That sounds like a legit idea. Most important 1st aid gear can fit in a backpack. Inhaler. Defibrillator. Tracheostomy Tube. Etc including stuff to stop bleeding, including the knowledge of how to do it correctly.
Their solution is going to be ai controlled drones, you think they’re going to create solutions that require people? This problem is the first step to robo ambulances, we already have robo police drones where I live in America.
Feeling confused. Why can’t the ambulance go through the small gaps between sidewalk. In my country ambulance drivers drive like its GTA.
theres people on it? Like regularly?
Also i doubt an ambulance would even fit in most places, chances are it’s going to get stuck, immediately.
Love this. Who says the Germans have no humour.
Mostly the French
How many Germans does it take to change a lightbulb?
One.
They’re efficient and have no sense of humor
Richtig!
Wer das liest ist doof
Don’t have to change it at all, if this is a german lightbulb.
Where I live in Canada traffic moves for anything EMS related with lights(other than a tow truck unless of course they have an EMS escort). We pull up on to sidewalks, curbs, and anything really to clear a path. Heck I’ve seen people put their vehicle into a snow bank or a ditch to get out of the way. I guess we’re of the mindset that others will do the same for us should we be the ones awaiting EMS to arrive or deliver us to an ER.
It’s German John Cena.
John Zena
*Johann
There’s no place for anyone to move to. The congestion is such that you cannot get out of the way. The Van Wyck alone will slow an ambulance to 3-5mph because of traffic. You cannot get out of the way if there’s no place to go!
As if the usa is the only country in the world with congested rush hour traffic. I’ve been in streets that were way more tightly packed + chaotic than this and people would still clear a path for vehicles with sirens. The emergency vehicle would only be able to go 20 to 30 kmh without a motorcycle escort, but that’s still significantly faster than what we’re seeing here.
What we’re seeing in this video, is that (some) vehicles that are directly in front of the ambulance move out of the way, but vehicles that are a tiny bit further ahead, don’t even try. If a vehicle that is directly in front of the ambulance can move out of the way, then a vehicle that is 30 places ahead, is also able to move out of the way, but they don’t even try … What should happen is that as soon as drivers hear a siren, they should start looking for where it’s coming from and then clear a path, and drivers should also especially not be driving into the path that others are clearing. Instead it seems like these drivers wait till the siren is right behind them and only then some start to move out of the way.
Looking for excuses in American exceptionalism reads like a case of “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas”. This particular problem is something that can be easily improved upon by a public awareness campaign and some light fines for those that keep obstructing after the campaign has been running for some time. But what’s obviously even easier than that, is finding an excuse to continue doing nothing about the problem.
Part of the problem is that the “rugged individualism” that America was founded on also equates to entitlement. The last generations that truly had it rough, where a community spirit was important to surviving are dying or gone, and no one has learned their lesson. Yet.
Well, I guess you’ve got it all figured out then. Just stupid Americans, right?
Yeah, absolutely. Americans making excuses as to why solutions that work in other countries, would not work in the USA, are a scourge on your society. Your lives could be so much better if you lot stopped falling for that American exceptionalism propaganda and stopped inventing reasons to not do anything about known problems. And now that you’ve turned into a banana republic, I’m done being polite about it.
A retort that completely disregards the reasons why it doesn’t work in some major cities based on the sole example presented here while you make sweeping judgements conflated into an overall condemnation of everyone living here. Wow. Fuck right off. Really. Blocked.
Yes. With video evidence.
There’s congestion in German cities too. The point isn’t to drive away. During rettungsgasse, nobody goes anywhere. They just make way by stopping to the sides.
The problem in NY is that the cars are too big for the lanes to do that.
There are no lanes to move aside into. It has nothing to do with vehicle size or “driving away”. I really don’t know what to tell you, I’ve spent plenty of time in several German cities as well as US cities, the comparison isn’t there. There are no breakdown lanes or shoulders to move into in many places to make room for emergency vehicles. You’re welcome to argue all you want, but I drive in and around NYC regularly so I’m more than familiar.
The problem in NY is that the cars are too big for the lanes to do that.
the only place available for people to do this is parking lanes and bus/bike lanes.
There seems to be quite some space there compared to what I’ve seen emergency vehicles use here in the Netherlands. Recently there was one traveling across a pretty narrow bridge and a road that normally allocated 2 cars. The traffic was completely stuck and yet somehow the emergency vehicle got enough space to travel through. It outpaces me while I was racing down the bridge on a bike. That was more crowded and narrow than this. People went everywhere with their car to create a way for the emergency vehicle
Yeah but they do actually just stop. If there is a siren anywhere in the area, and everyone just stops driving their car. Even when there is somewhere to go, no one ever does.
Yeah that’s usually at an intersection where the only place to go to is into a red light with crossing traffic. A quick search of laws in the US shows no relief for motorists just because there’s a fire truck behind you trying to get through. If you run the red light to make way you could be ticketed (even though it would be real asshole to issue the ticket), and if someone hits you while you run the red or move into tbe intersection to make way it’s your fault. So there’s a lot of disincentive to move in those cases. Where I live people all move over if they can. Otherwise they stay put to be predictable and let the emergency vehicle use the breakdown lane or oncoming traffic. Worst thing is when people cluelessly start randomly trying to outsmart the ambulance and cause a clusterfuck of cars that nobody can get past. US drivers have fuckall for discipline.
I feel like this is mostly your fault for letting 12-year-olds drive, which seems to be the US norm.
Hey have you attended high school education? Great, here is a gun feel free to drive like a maniac who has no concept of lane discipline.
Americans make the Italians look considerate
Ja.
I’ve seen roads so congested in NYC that they literally cannot get through. Saw a firetruck honk for a solid 5 minutes before getting to move anywhere.
You should see major cities in latin america if you think that’s bad. In many countries it’s like they don’t even care.
The US has no excuse though, we should be way, way better.
