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When traffic comes to a standstill, German drivers instantly shift left and right to create a Rettungsgasse, an emergency corridor so ambulances and firefighters can fly through at full speed (cdn.imgchest.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/videos@lemmy.world
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[–] 92 points 5 months ago (15 children)

so frustrating to drive in germany and then come back to the us with so many inconsiderate idiots around.

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  • [–] 10 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah, in the US there's zero chance that opening isn't filled by drivers who think they're more important than everyone else.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    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

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    This isn't pulling over because there's an emergency vehicle actively there. They're pulling over because traffic is blocked up, for the possibility that an emergency vehicle may need through. It doesn't decrease throughput bit it does let emergency vehicles through. If people abuse it then throughput stays the same and they lose the extra benefit.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (7 children)

    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”

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago* (5 children)

    Buuut if they're going the speed limit, how are you supposed to overtake them anyway? You wouldn't break the speed limit, would you?

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Old wisdom says at any time you can drive 10% more than the limit and face no issues

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I've seen a US cop pull someone over while going over the speed limit. Most of the time they are sitting in their cars doing fuckall. Other than getting overpaid to scroll on their phones of course.

    It still amazes me when I see a huge pedestrian-annihilation-class pickup truck fly past a cop doing 90 mph in a 60 mph zone and absolutely nothing happens. I think to myself, surely they are going to get pulled over. That's felony speeding.

    Nope. That would require the cop to get off their ass and do something. The only time that happens in this country is when there's a constitutionally protected protest happening or when someone with dark skin is in the vicinity.

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    • [–] 92 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    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.

    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rettungsgasse

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago*

    That push in Germany quickly got wider EU traction & it's finally starting (5~10 years ago?) 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!

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    • [–] 60 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    That’s the plan. In real life, only few ambulances manage “to fly through”, there are always some jerks ignoring this rule.

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  • [–] 31 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

    Prisoners dilemma always wins.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months 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.
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    • [–] 76 points 5 months ago (15 children)

    In America it would instantly be filled by cunts trying to cheat their way through traffic.

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  • [–] 40 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    In Germany, we have laws for that.

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  • [–] 29 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    ...which are enforced?
    Because that's one major issue with the legal system of the USA.

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  • [–] 8 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    We literally have this. We call it the "shoulder".

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    Right? Around here, each side of a divided highway has two travel lanes marked. There is a narrow shoulder on the left, and a wide shoulder on the right, either of which is adequate for emergency vehicles.

    The intended purpose is to facilitate future construction. There is enough room on each side of the median for three lanes plus a narrow shoulder. They can put up a temporary k-rail median and repaint the lane lines to move a lane of traffic across the normal median. They can completely close a lane of traffic for repairs, while retaining at least two lanes (plus a narrow breakdown lane) in each direction.

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  • [+] -6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months 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.

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    • [–] 27 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    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

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I'm in the UK so it's the norm (saying that, not sure if that applies to London). If they're indicating, you wouldn't dream of not letting them out.

    It's more my thought pattern as I do

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    NZ here. We're, generally, incredibly arrogant drivers.

    I think it comes from having a very low population density for such a long time: the roads were empty enough that you could "own the road". Now, same roads with five times the density and that doesn't work out like that anymore but the mindset persists.

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    • [–] 23 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    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".

    Great idea, though.

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    • [–] 22 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    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

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    • [–] 15 points 5 months 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.

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    [–] 13 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 13 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    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

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    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

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Bike messenger are the real police. They'll give a homeless guy a sandwich a then turn around and beat the shit out of a pickpocket.

    You do not fuck with bike messengers, they're pissed off at the world and right to be. Plus they know all the escape routes.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    i'm just trying to think of the synchronicity of this. i did the running sports in school because i got good legs. i did the kicking martial arts thing because i got good legs. i am doing the leg exercise midlife crisis thing because blah blah. i'm wondering if i should get some mall ninja throwing stars to go with my new angry midlife crisis this sounds fun

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    • [–] 12 points 5 months ago (11 children)

    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

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    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

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  • [–] 13 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    I've had people follow me through traffic on the highway, doing what I do, and when they inevitably ride so close they can count the hairs on my head, I slow down to like 35; and they. Never. Get. The fucking. Hint.

    I was driving in on an interstate one time, no other cars were around us, I was in the left lane going almost 80 and the person behind me was right up on my ass. So I go to the right lane and slow down to let them pass, and this motherfucker keeps right up on my ass, so I literally slow down to like 20, and they slow right on down with me for about 10 seconds until they finally realize what the fuck is going on.

    People here in the US are all fucking goldfish I swear to God.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (2 children)

    I can make it a good solid guess as to what happened there. They probably had adaptive cruise control running. For those who don’t know adaptive cruise control is it’s a sensor that will adjust your speed to perfectly match the speed of the person in front of you. If you are using cruise control. The problem is by default adaptive cruise control is set to the shortest distance possible. So it , from the person who is in front , from their perspective it looks like you are riding their ass. It should never be set to the shortest distance possible it should be set so you have about a three second following distance. Most people never adjust this because they’re stupid.

    Now, why did they follow you when you change lanes? I’m going to call them a lemming. Well, the other person moved over so I’ll move over too. So as you slow down the adaptive cruise control makes them keep slowing down. And they’re not paying attention until like you said you get down about 30 miles an hour. Then they realize what’s going on.

    Here’s the fun part when they pull out to go around you. If they speed up normally their engine doesn’t get gunned really hard. But if they just pull out, the adaptive cruise control kicks in and realize oh there’s nobody in front of me and I’m supposed to be going 80 mph. And the car will absolutely freaking gun it. It’ll go into overdrive. And if you aren’t prepared for that it’s quite the jolt.

    And yeah they are basically goldfish and lemmings out there.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

    The particular case in my story didn't have a super recent car that could have adaptive cruise control (also, ime ACC is never set at the closest but default, but either the second or farthest setting), so they were definitely just driving terribly.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    That’s interesting that your experiences that adaptive cruise control is never set to the closest. Every time I go to test driving new vehicle and when I say new, I mean very low miles like 15 miles or something. I checked the adaptive cruise control. It’s always set to the closest possible setting.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah you would need like 99.9% of the drivers in the US to agree to this. I don't think you could even get 70% of the selfish fucks on our roads to do this. Guaranteed 3 out of 10 cars would wonder why everyone else is a bunch of losers and head straight down the middle, which would never actually exist in the first place because 7 out of 10 cars being considerate is nowhere near enough...

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago

    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"

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    • [–] 9 points 5 months ago

    A+ happy German narration.

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    [–] 9 points 5 months 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)

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    [–] 8 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    wait hold on. i don't see an emergency vehicle. you just do this because traffic is stopped?

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    how do you think it would work if they only did it when there was an ambulance?

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    • [–] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    In Paris, government people and/or VIP use fake ambulances to take advantage of this and avoid being stuck with us peons.

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    [–] 6 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    As an Austrian, this works good but not always so good as it should

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    • [–] 16 points 5 months ago (12 children)

    The intrusive thought to just pull out and gun it down that road is fucking strong.

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  • [+] -5 points 5 months ago (3 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    There's a reason I called it an intrusive thought...

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  • [+] -6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Might be legal if you're on a motorcycle. If it isn't, it should be. No reason to not allow lane filtering.

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    • [–] 9 points 5 months ago

    That's crazy, all these suckers waiting while there is an open lane right there!!

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    [–] 4 points 5 months 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.

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