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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.
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!
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!
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
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?
This would require people capable of thinking and having empathy for others
Here in America you'd get people peeling through the middle
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.
It's also severly punished
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?
Our culture is narcissism
Around here, emergency vehicles just drive in the shoulder when this happens.
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.
Yes, but you're ignoring the advantages of smart motorways. By removing the hard shoulder, that ensures people who break down can block an entire lane and endanger themselves and others in the process! Smart! Bonus! Win! 👍👍👍👍
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.
Driving through the rettungsgasse is punished very heavily though
wait hold on. i don't see an emergency vehicle. you just do this because traffic is stopped?
how do you think it would work if they only did it when there was an ambulance?
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.
Yes, we are taught to move left or right to create a middle lane during a traffic jam.
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.
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
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
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.
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)
That's crazy, all these suckers waiting while there is an open lane right there!!
There are easier ways to say you drive a Mercedes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In Paris, government people and/or VIP use fake ambulances to take advantage of this and avoid being stuck with us peons.
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.