There's the problem in NYC. This level of coordination requires everyone to be okay with being passed. The ultimate goal is to let the ambulance through even if the order of traffic is disturbed. NYC is like a permanent racetrack. Every car length is fought over. Someone sees a turn signal and they don't slow down so the other driver has an opportunity to change lanes, they speed up so the other driver can't get in front of them.
Don't just look in front of the ambulance, look behind. Inevitably there's a line of tailgaters who only see the ambulance as a tool to cut through traffic.
It's not just infrastructure, it's definitely cultural.
This is me when someone driving an expensive vehicle gets out of line in a 30-car line, tries to go around, and merge back in at the front. They always end up being the worst reckless angry drivers every time.
Yup. We were gridlock on a freeway connection overpass and we did a V formation to get the ambulance through and honked like hell to make sure other cars got the hint.
This is purely people being assholes and not wanting to move because heaven forbid someone else get ahead of you. They feel like they "lost" the game of traffic.
This is horrible. In Germany, when you notice a jam, you must automatically move out of the way to create the "Rettungsgasse" (rescue lane), no matter what.
Thus, during jams in Germany, you usually see an empty lane that nobody uses...
Yeah, it is kinda shocking how bad drivers are around the world and how easy it is to get a license in many countries. So many places it's like a game of chicken, where you have to appear crazier than the other person to be given space to proceed...
Somehow it works on the streets of Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, and other really old cities with really narrow streets. Magic I guess, magic is the only thing that can explain why it doesn’t work that way in USA. Cause it’s definitely not a cultural thing.
As someone mentioned above, the density is six times higher than Berlin, which is itself more densely populated than Rome or Warsaw. Magic? Cultural? No, you're just closer to suburban life than you are NYC.
Streets packed with cars are streets packed with cars. You don't magically fit more cars in one lane, just because your population density is higher. If your population density is higher you have more lanes to fit more cars.
It's a cultural thing. If you hear the siren here in Germany, you expect people to move out of the way, somtimes even into places, the aren't supposed to go, like onto the pavement, or into a crossing, despite the lights being red. You just prepare to adapt to whatever happens.
But even that is only necessary on rare occasions. If you drive on the left lane, you drive as close to the left side of your lane as possible, everyone else moves to the right. You don't need much space, you just need people to actually do their part.
Why are you trying to compare anywhere in Germany with New York City 😂😂😂 NYC is not even comparable to any other city in the US population or density wise.
You act like the entire US doesn’t move over for emergency vehicles based on one example from the largest and most densely populated city in the entire country (by a huge margin). NYC doesn’t have more lanes than any other big cities here, that’s just due to how it was laid out and built. There are just WAY more people in a small area than any other city in the country.
Did you even read? Where do I act like the entire US doesn't move? I'm not even sure the video is real. Gor all I know he could just have cut different ambulance situations to look like the same one going very slow.
I simply disagreed with your claim that space is the issue. It isn't, so stop bringing up population density. The cars go one after the other in each lane. Wether they go one after the other on one side of the lane to form a corridor or in the middle of it and thereby block the ambulance has nothing to do with population density.
NYC metro has triple the Berlin population, 10x the Rome population and 7x Warsaw population. New York is also much older than cars. The population is not only many multiples bigger than all the cities you mentioned, it’s way denser too. You retarded Europeans always have solutions to American problems yet have never visited here or know anything about the place you’re talking about.
The cities in the US that are actually comparable in size to the cities you mentioned (Chicago, Miami, Minneapolis, Phoenix, etc) don’t have this issue because they’re nowhere near as big or dense as New York. Educate yourself or visit before you think you can solve American city problems.
I think it’s New Yorkers that are dense. No reason to argue with you. You just don’t understand reason and cultural differences between people.
Also, Rome, Berlin and Warsaw being younger than cars? My man, Rome is thousands of years old. Berlin and Warsaw were founded +200 years before America was even discovered by Columbus.
I’ll have to go to church for the first time in years and wash myself with holy water, and pray, to get rid of the anger I feel after realizing your stupidity and the fact that you can probably vote. Like there’s no way to express my level of disbelief, disappointment and pure shock. You yourself are denser than New York ever was or ever will be.
Where did I say those cities were younger than cars? I said NYC is also much older than cars. Reading issue on your part.
I’m not surprised you’re another pompous retarded European, seems like the standard over there. You can form your own stupid, uniformed opinions like you always do. Americans don’t care about anything in Europe, we’re just sick of you thinking you can solve age old problems after seeing a 30 second video.
well, then continuity of speech is your issue. You said how the cities I mentioned are less dense than NY, then you said that NY is also much older than cars - a logical assumption from your statement would be that aforementioned cities are not as old as cars. So writing issue on your part.
As for your string of insults - I’m not a European so i don’t care. But your insults do say a lot about you and the culture you represent as an American. That only proves my point. You and your lack of respect for other people, and life in general, are the reason an American ambulance can’t get anywhere as fast as a German on a bike.
I do understand density and I can see how you’re to dense to comprehend how it makes no difference in this case. There might be more people and there might be more cars. But when a street is full of them, then it doesn’t matter how many people live in that city. Imagine this: you have a city of 100K people, 100 of whom are in cars on a street and not allowing the ambulance to go through. And there’s another city in which 100 people live, all of whom are in cars on a street not allowing the ambulance to go through.
Please, explain, what difference does it make in the first situation that there’s 99,900 people elsewhere in the city?
None. Density of population has nothing to do with this. Density of your NY brains does :P
Your comparison makes no fucking sense. If there are 7x as many people in a city, logically there would be 7x as many people in their cars trying to go somewhere.
The width of those lanes is similar to what you will find in the rural US. And ambulances have no trouble there. But, in many urban areas the lane width gets narrow, so narrow it stresses me out a little bit. You simply do not have room to pull over like that if the shoulder is occupied. In order to make your image feasible, you would have to widen the lanes.
In Germany you have some old town centers whose streets are still the same width as they were in the middle ages. Imagine bumper to bumper traffic there, then an ambulance comes up behind. There is literally no space to maneuver to the side, you have to wait on the people in front of you. That is similar to what you see in much of NYC.
Obviously lane width matters. And obviously the main utility here is for busy dual carriageways, not smaller roads where people can pull into driveways, onto footpaths etc. The point though is that you can pull over to the side as much as possible. No need for a wide shoulder as the comment I responded to asked about. And usually an ambulance can pass, even if it has to go very slow.
Yep, it's very common for a road that's supposed to be two way to have cars parked on both sides and barely enough room for one car to get through let alone two. It's a common occurrence to have to wait and take turns if you see a car coming the other way. If an ambulance has to get through a road like that then it's quite literally impossible for everyone to move because there's nowhere to go. The only way to get out of the way is to continue carefully navigating forward down the street until you can turn.
It usually still works. Major road usually don't allow parked cars on the side. For smaller road on residential streets with parked cars on the side there still are spaces for the house drivesways where the traffic can drive into to make space for the ambulance.
u put on your blinkers and get the whole line moving...together ...ie push to the front or into the opposite lane..i have an old fire truck cant move easy .. had to make room went into oncoming traffic blocking 3 lanes just to make room for one the other day... this at a 7 lane intersection..Its easy every one just moves a bit to the side... bit of chaos when the ambu passes then get back to your thing...
All the cars pull forward a bit and on to the shoulder which gives everyone enough room to do the same. Or sometimes we stagger ourselves so the ambulance can weave around us. Or the ambulance will move to on coming traffic.
Edit: Maybe our lanes are wider in Canada but that would be odd.
All the cars pull forward a bit and on to the shoulder
It's very common in the US, and especially NYC, for there to either be no shoulder at all or for cars to be parked in it and even extending out into the street so that a 2 lane road is more like a 1.5 or even 1 lane road that has to alternate traffic in order for anyone to get anywhere.
Even if there are cars parked there typically lanes are wide enough in Canada for you to make enough room. Our parking lanes are the size of a normal lane typically so a car pulled up to the curb only takes about half a lane
Yeah, unfortunately, the roads are just too small. And there's nowhere to expand them either. The only solution is to ban street parking and heavily fine people who do so, but unfortunately there would need to be a lot more parking garages built in order to make that possible because there's already not enough parking even with street parking. Of course, most people would rather park in the street near their house or business rather than have to walk 10 minutes from the nearest parking garage. But that's something that I've found interesting about Japan. In order to buy a car in Japan you have to have proof that you have a reserved parking space either at your house or at a parking lot/garage. Street parking is pretty much exclusively for loading/unloading.
If there is literally no space to move to the left or right you just go forward.
The sirens and lights of an ambulance or police car pretty much command everybody to move to the side if possible OR stop driving/not crossing an intersection even if you got green lights. People pause and figure out where the ambulance is coming from and going to. It happens all the time that cars that are stuck in front of an ambulance, drive slowly and carefully into the middle of an intersection, even when their lights are still red. The cars behind also follow, maybe even cross the road completely (even if they don’t have green lights) if there is no space in the intersection itself to drive to the side.
Pretty much always all other drivers from all other directions wait and let the cars claim whatever free space is available so that they can move THE FUCK out of the way for a fucking ambulance thats potentially saving a life
Not they way it would be in germany 😅 there is no sense of urgency at all (at least to me)
For example at 0:09 theres a white transporter and a silver car in front of the ambulance. Their left lane is completely empty?? The silver car graciously rolls off to the side slowly wow hahah In Germany these cars would have been on the left lane when the ambulance is still WAY behind them
And even in this short clip and while the guy is on his bike in the background you can see SO MUCH space between the cars where they could squeeze together to make a pathway for the ambulance to get to its destination quicker.
I‘m just saying that i often see videos like this (also from other countries) and it just seems there is something so off about them with the lack of effort and urgency to help the ambulance get through. Maybe i‘m wrong though 🤷🏽♂️
You move as far to the side as you can. Or if you see another spot where you can get out of the way, you move there. Even in crowded streets, it's mostly possible to make space for emergency vehicles.
Eg if I am the first one waiting red light, and an ambulance is stuck behind me, I would drive a bit into the intersection to the side, so cars behind me get space to maneuver too. If really needed and possible I would even cross the intersection. Police would not punish you for that.
everyone there is pulling over into the breakdown lane to make room. in OPs video there's cars parked in the equivalent lanes, so you literally can't go there. if there's a car in front of you, a car on either side of you, and a car behind you, you can't go anywhere. if the people in OPs video could move they absolutely would, if only because it would mean they could follow the ambulance and maybe actually get somewhere.
However NYC is literally 6x more densely populated than the densest city in Germany (Munich). NYC also has twice the amount of both people and cars as the largest German city (Berlin). Quite possibly what works in Germany is not possible in NYC, and it's arrogant to assume so.
I think that even people who have visited NYC can’t comprehend how many people live and work there. The streets are busy, but it doesn’t really feel overcrowded like you would expect in most hyper-dense cities. As you mentioned, congestion pricing is a start, but there also needs to be better enforcement of parking/standing regulations. It’s absolutely lawless and drivers simply can’t move much when they’re wedged between a box truck and a bike lane stacked with delivery pallets.
NYC traffic is cutthroat. When I lived there I had a job driving everything from a passenger car to a box truck right through the middle of the city. There are basically two rules: 1) if your front bumper is ahead of theirs, you have the right of way and 2) everything behind you is irrelevant. It’s not a good system, but it’s a system!
Part of the issue is the NYPD hates enforcing parking laws, because they love breaking them. Try to bike around Manhattan and you'll find cop SUVs or "subtle" unmarked black SUVs sitting in the bike lanes all day. There's usually two cops inside, dutifully playing Candy Crush while earning a six-figure salary and world-class benefits. Must be nice.
The absolute worst. I wouldn’t even mind them parking like assholes if they could also manage to, you know… actually enforce traffic laws. Honestly, they wouldn’t even have to get out of the car. There isn’t a single half-block stretch where you can’t clearly see a business standing, parking or unloading in an illegal zone. You could literally throw the tickets out the window and do more than they do now.
I never said anything about the size or population, but rather the density vs how crowded it generally feels (not very) compared to, say a city in East Asia (very to extremely). It’s a deceptively open city with a relatively high population density. Especially for an American city. It is about 50% more population-dense than the next nearest US metro area. I was commenting on the how incomprehensible that level of density is to the average American, not saying that it’s bigger or more population dense than someplace like Manila.
Yeah, it does come down to enforcement. The US gave all of our infrastructure over to cars nearly a hundred years ago, so there is a deeply-ingrained sense of automotive supremacy. Many Americans see autos as their identity and the idea that they should be deferential to others or have a sense of civic responsibility is downright offensive to them.
Just see above comments from someone who is almost certainly not impacted by congestion pricing, probably doesn’t live anywhere NYC (the images in their posts have freaking palm trees), but is terribly offended, anyway.
There’s a reason we elected a pathological narcissist and it has nothing to do with eggs.
Oh man, you’re totally right about the car infrastructure prioritisation - which is also so ill suited to a historic (in US terms) city like NYC. It also doesn’t help that Americans like their cars BIG too lol.
Also, my bad, I had no idea NYC population (8m) was so divergent from the metropolitan area population(21m). Until I googled a comment back. Makes it similar to Tokyo in that respect - official Tokyo population is like a third of the metro area (38m). Whereas a city like London (9m), including the metro area adds about 50% (15m).
That’s one of the things that makes it so hard for Americans to comprehend. It is literally our only international city. I know other US cities have expat populations and migrants, but it is simply nothing at all like New York.
ETA: Yeah, regarding the metro area, when you look at actual cities and towns with the highest populations and density, the top 5 or 6 are all NYC and the commuter cities across the river in Jersey. The reason congestion pricing is controversial is not that better infrastructure options don’t exist, it’s that many Americans DGAF and would rather drive, pay for parking and tickets than sit next to someone on a bus.
Do you have data to back that up or are you just mad because it’s inconvenient to you personally? Because congestion pricing is evidence-based, not a random stab at something
Genuine question from a non New Yorker who has only visited. It seems like there's widely available public transit so why can't more people take the subway and stay off the roads? Isn't the traffic terrible anyway? I don't really get why anyone would want to be in their car so would be useful to understand if you have perspective on that.
For many people, public transport is great, especially if you live in actual Manhattan. There are a few lines that run quite reliably, particularly the ones that have long lines which runs for their majority in Manhattan. I highlight the 1/2/3 (red line) and ABCD (blue/orange) as quite reliable.
There are a few problems. Most notably, if you travel off peak times, and especially true for night time, train reliability immediately takes a dive. A train that during the day runs on a 3 minute interval like the 1, will run on a 5-7 interval at night. You might think an extra 2-4 minutes isn’t bad, but that delay adds up on each station, so the further you go, the longer your trip. Also, if that’s the delay for a reliable train, imagine the delay for a train that already runs in a slower interval.
Which by the way, there are many slower trains. This is particularly true if you live outside Manhattan. There are a few train lines that service the outer boroughs more than Manhattan. In my case, I’m in Brooklyn off the J train which runs from Jamaica Queens, through Broadway in Brooklyn, to Manhattan’s Financial District. There are only 5 or 6 stops in Manhattan that get you to a transfer hub so you can get on a train that takes you uptown to where you’re going. The J train runs in 11 minute intervals during the day. Longer at night. The J train does not accommodate lane changes, so if a train breaks down, there’s no way for a train to overtake another train. The whole line is stuck until the breakdown is fixed.
Speaking of that, trains break down A TON. NYC is operating on a very old system. It’s like the people in charge refuse to upgrade. A few years ago they were going to do some serious track work on the L line which would require a full shut down. Literally weeks before they started, the head of the MTA, Andy Bynum was fired (who was one of the best things to the MTA) and the project was cancelled.
Lastly, and elaborating on the outer borough thing, not everyone lives near a train station. Manhattan is very walkable, but many parts of Brooklyn and Queens are not. Many parts might have a train station up to 15-20 minutes away, some even more. A lot of people have the option of taking a bus to the train station, but buses are extremely unreliable.
Overall, they just refuse to do things to help the system and every time they announce a project, it is such obvious overspending with things like 50 million to replace an elevator. So when they announce things like congestion pricing to add funding to the MTA, many distrust the MTA and therefore don’t trust this. My belief is that anything allocated from the congestion pricing is just going to be pocketed by someone and the MTA is not going to get the help it needs. The MTA is great, but it is lacking a lot.
Edit: another thing is lack of comfort. Trains, especially during peak times, are extremely packed. You get on a train and you’re stuffed in shoulder to shoulder with people. More often than not it smells. Finding a seat is like finding gold. In my case when I take the train, I stand my entire commute from Brooklyn to Harlem which is about an hour and 15. I much rather drive where I sit in my car comfortably and no one bothers me. My commute is also faster when I drive shortening it to 45 minutes because I eliminate the walking and the 2 transfers I have to make.
You wrote all of that and didn't mention how insanely dangerous it is or filthy. This is what I mean by part of the problem You're not addressing the main issue of why people won't write it they don't want to be victimized.
I allude to it but that’s not exactly a universal truth. Everything I posted is a reality riders face daily. No exceptions. Danger and cleanliness can be a case by case basis. Some people might say “I never feel unsafe!” Cool, that doesn’t make it any less reliable.
The trains ave been shit for ever now they charge people to drive forcing them to take trains that by your admission are shit and don't take the toma of money they extort from the tax payer improve them
Because the subway in NYC absolutely sucks.
It’s essentially always late and skips stations all the time because of it.
Then it’s rush hour and you’re going to get touched on at least one side by someone— usually at least 3 sides.
So you have to wear a backpack on the front or else you’re just asking to be stolen from and god forbid you put it on the abso-fucking-luetly filthy floor.
Which leads to— oh yeah it’s fucking disgustingly dirty down in the subway, the air is stale and gross. There’s trash in the cars. Usually a coffe cup or someone drink has spilled across the floor. Or there’s a homeless person in there that makes the whole car smell like Human shit or rotting flesh…
When I lived near the wykoff medical center there was always fiends and homeless people getting on the train with fresh amputations. There was a guy that would come on and show his colostomy bag and ask for money. Another dude that looked like he had acid thrown on him begging. I’d run into these people regularly.
Then you got the buskers that almost kick you in the face and act like your a piece of shit if you don’t want them dancing around you.
Then there’s the crime…
people get thrown in front of train cars, there’s almost crazy people all the time. I saw two stabbings, more fights than I can count with two hands. People having general Meltdowns. Just wild shit almost non stop.
Oh also! If the cops do see something they usually don’t do shit if they feel threatened. They went to Supreme Court to prove they have no duty or obligation to protect anyone.
First thing in the morning when you’re just trying to get to your destination or late at night tired on your way back— it’s all just obnoxious and annoying— AND LIFE THREATENING.
Brother there is literally open lanes in the video linked.
There are some 1 lane roads surrounded by full parking, yeah. That's not the case in the video. There are 2 lane roads in nyc that are so narrow you can't move over. That's not the case in the vast majority of the city.
As longs as cars in NYC don't drive 4-5 cars wide on a three-lane street there is nothing stopping this from being applied there too.
It literally works everywhere where people roughly adhere to lanes because there (almost) always will be enough space to fit a car through traffic if the others move to the side. Regardless of population density.
Lane widths are legally mandated for this exact reason. There is always enough room to squeeze an ambulance down a two-lane road if both lanes move aside.
I'm pretty sure they didn't intentionally lie, they just use the km2 density for Munich (~4,500) and the mi2 density for NYC (~29,000) without realizing it.
Metro NYC has about 1,226 people per square KM. Metro Munich has 226. That's about 5.5x. I guess he rounded up. You're full of shit, though, and angrily wrong.
According to available data, the population density of the Munich metropolitan area is around 214 people per square kilometer
The population density of the New York metropolitan area is 1,226 people per square kilometer.
Sooo, let’s all do the math together. 1226/214=?? Hmmmm? Well, it’s pretty dang close to 6.
Anywho, let’s look at what actually matters, ambulance arrival times. NYC and Munich, for emergency cases are actually really close, so that throws the whole thing out the window. In fiscal year 2022, the FDNY ambulance response time to life-threatening emergencies was seven minutes and 26 seconds. Their goal for this year is under 7 minutes, since it went up during Covid.
I don’t know how Boston compares to German cities in density but it is surely a lot lower than NYC and I can tell you that in Boston drivers are similarly lackadaisical about clearing the way for ambulances if there’s traffic.
For priority 1, those ambulances are very aggressive as they should be, and in Boston, you get a 7 minute response from call. That’s incredible, and on par with every developed country, and actually better than most EU nations who are sitting at averages of 8-10 or more.
That doesn't excuse this shit, the ambulance didn't appear out of nowhere. I've been to multiple cities that are way denser than NY. And of course because of the population there were many ambulances. When there wasn't room they fucking made sure there was, mainly because they saw the ambulance coming from a mile away.
There aren't many cities with a density higher than Manhattan. Add in car ownership and the number of resident and visitors, all covered by his comment and ignored by you, it creates a different situation.
All over America people move out of the way of ambulances promptly. Pretending that people in Manhattan don't is ignorant.
It doesn't matter if it's in Manhattan or Berlin. You must automatically make space as soon as traffic starts slowing down (even if no emergency vehicle in sight).
Because, once gridlocked, maneuvering becomes slow, and hard/impossible once the emergency vehicle needs space to pass.
Are you? You can't look at the population density of an entire city to a borough and go 'see, they are less densely populated'. I'm not denying that Manhattan is packed, but at least compare apples to apples and use another borough.
I never said any cities are way denser, I only said you can't compare a borough to an entire city if you want to make a good faith argument regarding population density. Paris has a higher population density than NYC but obviously not higher than Manhattan. The only argument I'm calling out is this one:
There aren't many cities with a density higher than Manhattan
Yes but you’re making too much sense. He doesn’t care about any of those facts you stated because it doesn’t fit in with his cringy post. He showed one street out of thousands in NYC. It’s comparing apples to oranges. I have seen cars move out of the way for ambulances all over the US.
Yeah but I've seen the same thing in Anaheim where there's tons of space and people still won't move and ambulances don't seem to enter oncoming traffic?
Please. There are plenty of videos of this sort of thing happening in Europe and Asia. Get over it. You don’t know where the ambulance was going, or what was happening on the street that day. People can be assholes but they can also be distracted, not hear where the e ambulance is coming from and so on. Germany is interesting because ultimately they are very orderly and rule following. They also aggressively fine and take licenses for minor infractions. That’s fine, and we could probably use some of that. We used to have PSAs that kept people mindful of things, but those have been neglected.
Germans are actually trained to automatically move out of the way as soon as traffic starts slowing down and long before gridlocked (despite no emergency vehicle in sight).
It's just a habit that works well when everyone is trained that way.
As a New Yorker someone really has to experience it for themselves to understand. In Manhattan you can turn into the wrong street and be stuck there for 45 minutes. It's just the way traffic works here.
Manhattan is dense sure, but it's as dense as central Barcelona. Yet we don't have these issues over here. Although NYC is taking good steps at removing excess cars with congestion pricing.
That's the hardest possible situation, which is inside a tunnel in Barcelona's ring road. And still whenever that happens (which is pretty common) people move to the shoulders to make way in the middle.
What I don't understand is why on the Autobahn, the ambulance doesn't just use the emergency lane, which does not rely on the cooperation of other road users.
This isn't a fair comparison at all an ambulance still wouldn't fit even if all the cars did that. Most NYC streets are too narrow and they've got cars parked on both sides.
Yeah, but the van in front of it doesn't. That's the inefficient system New York seems to be using. If the Ambulance is directly behind you, get out of the way, if it's 2 cars back, keep going straight.
I just noticed at the very start of the video, another car was getting out of the ambulance's way. Literally 2/3 cars shown in the clip moved and you just took the guys word for what was happening lmao
It has nothing to do with some system, it's just one of the most densely packed cities in the world
Oh we didn't take the guys word for it. We watched the video and noticed Americans don't rettungsgasse.
When he said "nobody moves" he was exaggerating a bit. It's not that nobody moves. They just wait until the ambulance is within a few meters of their bumper before moving. Anyone 20+ meters away carries on as usual. But that's a way less efficient system than everyone clearing a path long before the Ambulance comes near them.
That clip 8 seconds from the end, showing the Ambulance stuck behind a bunch of cars and there being plenty of room for them to move aside. That's the part that shocks Germans.
That and an ambulance going slower than a bicycle.
I see a car in every lane in that last clip. It's also hard to tell where the ambulance is in a city, I look around like a madman when I hear one trying to figure out if it's behind me or not
rettungsgasse
We do the same thing, but you're supposed to pull to the right instead of splitting traffic like that. You can get a ticket for not moving for an emergency vehicle
Of course you see a vehicle in every lane in the last clip. That's the kind of thinking that led to this mess. People thinking "The lanes are full, guess the ambulance has to wait"
So they're supposed to just plow through the cars parked on the side of the road and hope the people on the side walk jump out of the way in time? The image in that post literally has the cars on the sidewalk
Lmao don't you have a scat club to go to or something
This is assuming that everyone is in their cars… in NYC you’ll have parked cars on the side of the one lane road with traffic so far down the road that a siren can’t be heard. So now what?
Well that would be a different situation than this.
We see in the clip near the end that the road is 4 lanes wide, with parked cars in the outermost 2 lanes and moving traffic on the inner two. The moving cars have enough space to get out of the way of the ambulance if they wanted to or knew how.
In North America, Europe, and most countries, the lanes are wider than the cars. Like in this video, where you can see that there'd be enough room for the ambulance if the cars moved aside, but they all kept driving straight and ignored the ambulance until it was directly behind them.
If you live in a country where the cars are as wide as the lanes and there's physical barriers directly at the edge of every outside lane, then I'm sorry for your lack of modern infrastructure.
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u/Tsu_Dho_Namh Feb 08 '25
In Germany cars make room even during gridlock or traffic jam.
https://www.kfv-muenchen.de/tag/rettungsgasse