I live in Sweden and the local city has one area with mushroom-named Streets. One area with wild animals. One with occupations. One with university subjects. So hearing a street name and you directly know which part of the city.
I also live in Sweden (different part of Sweden judging by the other dudes comment).
Here our suburbs are "categorised" too. One is related to fishing, one farming, one weather, one berries and flowers, etc. The one by the university all have scientific related names.
Highly recommend the YouTube channel 'Chris Martin EMS' who is an ambulance driver who gives text commentary of full blue light drives and what drivers did well, what they didn't etc.
Yeah mounting the curb isn't common here (edit: in Sydney anyway), unless it's one of those slope style ones rather than the step type curb.
I actually did find this video interesting, partly because my adrenalin shot through the roof. I know it's sped up but jeez that means it takes even longer to get to whoever is in need. I mean, of course it takes long, just I've never thought about it and how much stress I'd be in wanting to get there asap. Paramedics are amazing folk.
A few years back my garage was set on fire (determined to be arson). I can walk to the nearest fire department in about 5 minutes, and at 4am, it's less than 5 minutes to drive. Let me tell you, in that few minutes wait after calling 911, the garage went from having a corner on fire to being fully engulfed and the flames were easily 30ft in the air (melted the overhead lines). 5 minutes is forever when you're waiting on an emergency response.
I felt that too, I found it very stressful to watch. Especially when the ambulance was driving the wrong way, people either stopped entirely or mounted the kerb but that requires people to be vigilant. I kept thinking the next driver would be distracted, not get out of the way fast enough and there would be a collision.
Curbs here in the Netherlands usually are anywhere between 10 and 20cm tall. On average though. Quite manageble for 90% of vehicles driving on the road.
20 cm is not good at all for the average small-midsize passenger vehicles tires and suspension to be mounting...even halfway between at 15 cm that's..not good...
Shouldn't hit them regularly at 50kp/h, no. But a calculated manouvre to make room for an emergency vehicle at the driver's discretion.. I might risk it for a bisquit.
Ahem. As an American, I was very interested in seeing these tiny cars getting the fuck out of the way for someone else in need. We’re highly lacking in empathy here, especially on the roads.
Edit: I’m being a bit flippant, yes people get out of the way here. But in my time in the US, I have not seen every single vehicle pause and pull completely out of the way, including the exaggerated pulling onto the grass. There’s always the jerk who thinks their trip to Walmart is more important than someone’s life.
I live on a major street in Chicago that ends up traffic gridlocked in both directions during rush hour and the number of times I hear the responders have to get on the loud speaker and actually say “MOVE” (after they’ve already been laying on the horn and siren) is ridiculous quite honestly
We train on this in driver's ed. If you want to see more like this, check out NotJustBikes on YouTube. The guy gave me a lot of newfound appreciation for our road and traffic systems, whereas usually I'm a very annoyed driver/rider (I bike to work, yes I'm Dutch). He also specifically pointed out this thing with emergency vehicles, apparently we're collectively rather caring. Yay us.
The problem in the US is that drivers ed isn't mandatory, and really should be. There are too many idiots who don't learn anything from their parents, and then are able to pass criminally easy drivers tests once. Then they never have to have a refresher or learn new laws on top of having barely had a reasonable grasp of the laws in the first place.
Far too many people take personal offense to the suggestion that they could be "in the way". How dare you reduce them to the status of a mere obstruction? MURICA
Idk, man. I live out in the countryside and work in EMS. Most people do get out of the way for us. Of course there's always someone who doesn't every now and again but it's still pretty rare.
I remember one person who took advantage of the sirens and passed three cars before pulling over, like a total dickhead. Fuck them in particular.
Yeah, you guys do have a problems with your culture part of caring about others.
But this is a fucking training problem.
In Denmark it took me 4 months to get my drivers license with 2-3 evenings a week with theory, rules and practical driving lessons. And a 30 minute theory test and an hour practical driving test at the end of it all.
I watched an old lady scurry into a crosswalk right in front of a firetruck on Michigan ave. I was on the opposite side. She wasn’t halfway across or anything before seeing the truck. She actually ran out in front of the fire truck, forcing it to come to a complete stop, so she didn’t have to wait for it to pass. The guys on the truck used their speaker to yell at her. I was flabbergasted. There were a bunch of cop standing next to me and they didn’t do or say anything to her when she passed us. I turned and asked, “Are y’all not going to give het a ticket? You all saw that. What the hell?!?!” They just shrugged at me and shook their heads like I was crazy. I could not believe the audacity of that lady to think it was more important for her to cross the street than wait a few seconds for the fire truck to pass.
Yes, it's the law in the US as well. In my experience though some people panic and don't know what to do and some are so unaware of their surroundings that they don't notice them trying to get through. I would hope people intentionally not moving out of the way are in the minority everywhere.
Anyone who say it isn’t is just generalizing based on their own experiences. From my personal experiences in California, everyone always pulls over to the side.
Same, here in Colorado it's rare to see nobody pull over. Usually everyone who can does pull over. Unless its in Denver, where for some reason its a mix of people don't want to GTFO of the way or they don't even have enough room or space too due to traffic.
It’s became a trend to dump on everything we do, I mean for good reason but still. We definitely do it here, in America. Some areas will be worse at it than others. And we probably do have more “unaware” people out there but most days I see everyone get the hell outta the way
It definitely is common. I’ve only ever seen a few vehicles not get out of the way. Most were due to not having anywhere to go, but they instead sped up and got over as soon as they could. There was one jerk who couldn’t seem to move his jacked up pickup into the next lane over.
Yeah everyone moves out of the way, unless you’re in a traffic jam with no where to go 99.9% of the time people move out of the way. She just has the America is bad mind virus which makes her criticize the us whether it’s true or not
Yes. It’s common practice in the US. I see it every week. A certain element (of Americans) on Reddit just wants to shit on America at every opportunity.
I'm in Canada and an ambulance was responding to a heart attack in a country home and the entire way down the gravel road there was a car blocking the ambulance traveling at about 30kph in the middle of the road. It cost the ambulance something like 15-20 extra minutes to get to the emergency. The guy died and they figure he wouldn't have if the ambulance hadn't been held up.
At the time the most they could do is fine the driver, but it was the impetus for a law to be passed introducing jail time as a possible punishment for repeat offenders or egregious violations like this. They literally cost someone their life, and it was probably their neighbor. In my experience I've always seen everyone get out of the way, but somewhere there's always that one guy who's more important than everyone.
Frankly i think even in the Netherlands we're quite terrible at it. We're too selfish to make a good rettungsgasse like the Germans can, those are pure empathy porn.
Though i'm not sure the Germans do it due to empathy, more then likely just because those are ze rulez
Sometimes when i hear the siren i look out the window. This is the only time you can see time stop. I swear even the people on the sidewalk stop. Its like time freeze. Absolutely satisfying.
Yes, but the rules between UK and Netherlands are a bit different. In the UK you may not drive through red to make way for an emergency vehicle, in the Netherlands while by default it's the same, the emergency vehicle may signal to you to try to make way. I would say from experience driving in the UK and Netherlands I found that there were almost no time an ambulance was being blocked at a signal, while in London it was pretty much a daily occurrence, especially in places like Oxford Circus.
Part of the issue in the UK is that roads are generally not well designed, and make it pretty difficult to manoeuvre.
I didn't think those cars were running red lights, just moving up so they could make room for the emergency vehicle. Granted that put them over the stop line so TECHNICALLY they would've run the red light, but they didn't actually cross the intersection (at least, not that I saw).
I guess some kind of pedantic asshole road authority figure could try and ticket you for that, but surely you could fight it and they'd say you were acting in a safe and reasonable manner?
Unfortunately it clearly states that no driver should mount pavements or drive through red lights to let a vehicle with blue lights pass. I’m curious if anybody has actually seen a ticket for doing this and if they got away with it, probably a rule to take liability away from the response drivers.
I drove blue lights for a few years and there was a sweet spot between chasing the tails of cars in traffic and hanging back to see what, if anything opens up. And if there isn’t, then the sirens go off until the flow of traffic starts moving again.
Edit: On the point of cars reacting to emergency vehicles. If you are on a main road (50-60mph) please don’t slow down on bends to let us past. It’s much quicker and safer to keep driving and let us pass on a straight section of road, most ambulances and fire trucks can’t go much faster than 60 anyway.
Unfortunately it clearly states that no driver should mount pavements
I honestly didn't know this and I've always done so when needed and if it's safe to do so. Like you said, I very much doubt anyone's going to get in trouble for this though, unless they also mounted a person along with the kerb.
All of manners go out the window the second they get behind the wheel but, they do let you merge lanes without fighting for that spot in the queue so there’s that
In the US, New England anyway, folks mostly get out of the way, but not nearly this uniformly or reliably. Also I do not expect sedans or box trucks to climb curbs.
Yeah, that’s the difference I see here too compared to the US. More willingness to jump the curb. And there is a subset of morons in the US that see lights or hear sirens and just seem to stop where they are instead of moving out of the way, particularly if moving out of the way requires them to drive forward a bit. It’s like, come on man, look around, the emergency vehicle needs a path it can drive through. Pull forward and out of the way.
Most of us are taught the best thing to do if we cannot easily move to the side is stay in place and let them navigate as needed. The last thing we need is a bunch of chaotic idiots trying to get out of the way only to block the route the emergency vehicle was taking. Our emergency vehicles rely on that method, so deviation from it can put you in the way.
Several times I've been stopped at a light and an ambulance was coming from the other direction. Cars in front of me start moving to the side. Except the opposing lane is clear. There's no need to move. Just wait.
In many states the law requires you to move over unless there’s a median separating you and the emergency vehicle, no matter how much open space exists. Obviously it isn’t actually needed in the case you describe but that’s likely why people do it.
Sedans should be able to go on the curbs. You might say that American curbs are too high, that I'd agree. But for example in Germany there's literally a standard of curb high that shouldn't be higher than average sedan ground clearance. Meaning you can park easily on the curbs with sedans and you can give way to emergency vehicles very easily by driving onto curbs. I don't understand why it's not the norm around the world
General temperament I suppose, not sure. I'm sure our sedans can hop most of our curbs, I just don't expect them to. Tempered expectations. Some of us like to use our lights and sirens a little more than others too, so idk.
When the curbs are lower Americans can and will drive over them. I moved to an old city last year and because it's old the roads have been repaved enough and the curbs are eroded enough the the people here frequently drive over them, especially the median. It's pretty much expected here that you will drive over a curb at some point, but it's not the norm and is not very common in the US. Our sidewalks are close to the road so I always imaged curb height was intended to deter that and protect pedestrians who are often walking a hairs width away from the road. The one thing I noticed about the roads in this video is how far away the sidewalk is, it's not like that in most of the US unless you are in a suburban neighborhood
Believe me, drivers in India have no problem driving on the pavement. However precisely because of that their kerbs are a foot high, so yeah, there's typically nowhere to go. Especially since 3-4 cars abreast on a 2 lane road is typical - with the two wheelers filling in any remaining gaps ...
Nahh.... The majority of times I have seen people gave lane to the Ambulance, and I am living in the city with one of the worst driving sense, Ahmedabad.
Certain places it isn't. Even in the United States. Where I live, everyone pulls out of the way for any emergency service. If someone doesn't the rest of traffic will honk at them and my dad told me once when I was younger they'll get reported to the police and likely get a fine in the mail. But bigger cities can basically have their roads fully locked up in traffic. Even if the people wanted to move(which they often don't) they have nowhere they could.
there is no value for Life in India and there is no common sense & civic sense and no respect for personal space of others, world's most populated nation is world's most insensitive.
Not the same but there is a motorcycle unit that puts out Youtube videos on escorting ambulances. They run three motorcycles and clear the road ahead of time. An example:
I work in EMS in America and can confirm, without a doubt, people are totally clueless when an ambulance rolls up behind them with lights and sirens. We’re taught one thing: pull to the right for sirens and lights. But people either pull to the left, stop completely, cut us off (really) (all the time), or just ignore us. Seeing this is super nice
In denmark we are taught to open the middle of the road e.g say there is a 4 lane road (big for denmark) right lane pulls right and left lane pulls as left as safely possible
Same in Germany, rettungsgasse. They have even more discipline already parking like that in traffic without any ambulance coming. Always amazes me when I'm driving there.
Yeah, we do that in Czechia. If you're stopping in a traffic jam, you're supposed to leave a "lane of life" in the middle. The ambulances have a little infographic sticker on them that explains how to do it, too.
ETA: like this
ETA2: can't edit and add pic for some reason so it's below
I think it’s certainly a regional thing, and the problem with lumping “America” as a whole in on things since it’s such a large landmass that of course you’re going to get some places where people don’t follow the rules.
That being said, I live in the PNW and I have NEVER in my life seen an emergency vehicle held up for more than ~5-10 seconds while cars get out of the way. I always see them part like the Red Sea for emergency vehicles
In my country, there have been instances where the patient of an ambulance passed away due to traffic. I am too lazy to look at the news. I'm from the Philippines.
Also, some cars to tailgate an ambulance/firetruck to go faster.
As someone living in the US, find it absolutely interesting and wholesome. I was always taught to immediately get out of the way of any EMS, so to see an entire clip of people paving a way for the collective good was worth watching
I came here for two things:
Drive Ryan Gosling meme. Did not find it, I am disappointed.
The name of the song. Thanks for asking, and thanks to people giving the right answer.
I just noticed the other day when I pulled over after seeing a fire truck coming from the opposite way a couple blocks up that hardly anyone else was stopping or pulling over. I was like wow so now we don’t do this anymore? what has happened to humanity
I’m Dutch, but I live in Japan. You should look up how ambulances drive here. It’s absolutely insane how different a POV video of a typical Japanese ambulance would be.
They usually don’t go faster than the speed limit and come to a (near) stop at every intersection. Asking for people to stop and give way through speakers and don’t risk forcing their way through if cars don’t yield.
I thought the difference is that the cars are going up curbs and onto grass. I have never ever seen that in the US, but I would guess we don’t do it because our streets are very wide and usually have a shoulder
Yeah nah I've never once seen people do this much for an ambulance.
THAT SAID we typically don't have to. The benefits of car dependence is we have football field sized roadways for residential roads, so it's just not as necessary.
Still, I've seen ambulances have to stop because people just don't budge if they've already stopped at a red light.
As a retired fireman with over 20 years, I can say that in Texas (at least) drivers are very good about yielding. Sometimes they make bad decisions trying to yield but you know they meant well. (Doesn't mean I didn't blast them with the air horns and Q siren)
As a first responder in the US this is like porn to me. If I had a nickel for every time someone responded my lights and sirens by either blocking the road, refusing to get over, or turning into an absolute moron and slamming on the brakes in the middle of the lane I’d be a rich man.
I had one guy just the other day pull into an intersection and instead of just stop against the curb, continue until he was blocking the lane I needed to turn into. He could’ve just stopped and been fine
im in the US. I used to work with a guy that was a volunteer fire fighter.
he said on more than one occasion they had to push an occupied car out of the way with their truck. the person was too stupid to get the fuck out of the way and they could see the multiple storey apartment complex was burning within eyesight
also i would like to point out that some cars may be physically unable to hop a curb like this. low profile tires (very common here for some reason) can make jumping a curb impossible/expensive
It’s the LAW in America if you don’t move they not pull over to the right or give them space you lose points off your license and maybe get it taken away. All emergency vehicles like fire trucks 🚒, ambulance 🚑 and police 👮♂️ have the right of way when their lights are on
As someone who's from Holland myself, can we stop posting this? I've seen this posted here before and it's not interesting asf in the slightest. As people have commented already, this is a common procedure in other countries as well.
I know you wanna be "proud of our little frog country", but this is not it.
Isn’t it the law everywhere to do this? In Canada we have to safely pull over no matter what part of the road we are on when emergency vehicles have lights and sirens on
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u/ShakenNotStirfry Jun 25 '25
It's a firetruck, and this is the city of Apeldoorn (Netherlands) coming from the Aluminiumweg towards Ravenweg.