WOW When traffic comes to a complete stop in Germany, the drivers, (by law) must move towards the edge of each side to create an open lane for emergency vehicles.
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Long ago as a new resident of the Bay area when driving north on the McArther I recognized my lane was slowing and traffic was crowding left and right then suddenly CHPs appeared approaching me head on. Of course I moved and within a mile was a pile up and a dozen or so cars jammed into one lane and beyond the pileup wreckers and EMT were approaching. It was like a Buzby Berkly corriography. I was amazed.
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Good idea! - if someone does not try continue in the open area.
Sometimes we approach an accident from the downstream side because it takes too long for vehicles jammed bumper-to-bumper behind the accident scene to squeeze over enough.
Drivers are wonderful and want to clear a path, but oftehaving no room makes it difficult.
I try to stop a car-length behind stopped traffic.
Around here in stopped traffic everyone tends to crunch together to provide room on the left or right shoulder depending where they are trying to get by. Trying to open a lane in the center I think would mean chaos. Surely someone would not know what to do and just sit there. Germans are more attuned to knowing and following the rules.
As the old saying goes, “If you can’t get Germans to follow orders, then nobody will obey those orders”. (I’m 3/4 German, so I should be able get away with that remark.)
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That’s not a requirement here as far as I know. If the police need to move through a traffic jam they usually use the shoulder mini-lane. If you pulled into that lane during a traffic jam you might well get a ticket.
I usually see emergency vehicles using the shoulders when the lanes are filled. This is for limited access roads.
Same here. Works great until they hit an overpass or something like that where there isn’t any shoulder.
As for the “clear the middle strategy” - a) US drivers (unlike Germans, as noted above) are likely unable to handle it, and b) then you have the problem of how to get out of the middle once you get to the response area. Once would like to think that for lack of shoulders or getting out of the middle, people would have the common sense to know how to leave the spaces as needed. But see point a
Yeah 1/2 here. The stubborn half/DIY. Half.
It’s a great idea, except Karen would think she’s special and use the open space and others would follow.
Now you have 3 lanes of stopped cars and nobody is getting through.
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To avoid nails and other debris, I go down the middle.
Drivers in lane 1 move toward the left shoulder where they can easily see how far left they can go.
Drivers in lane 2 move right but often cannot judge how far right they can move.
Luckily, even on bridges and through underpasses, both drivers manage topen up enough space thathemergencyehicle can get through.
(I should post dashcam videos of tight squeezes between tractor-trailer rigs.)
+1
And, whatever the male version of “Karen” might be, he would also think that he deserves special treatment. You know… like this “privileged parker”:
Then, there are the terminally-confused folks. Many years ago, they were doing repair work on the right lane one of the NJ Turnpike bridges, so there were signs directing people to drive on the shoulder and the left lane, and to use the right lane in case of a breakdown.
I came upon a traffic jam caused by somebody who had decided to park on the shoulder, despite the fact that he was adjacent to a clear space in the right lane that he could have used–as the signs directed.
In the colonial era cities and towns of the Northeast, it is always jammed up. There is often barely enough room for two cars to pass by each other and long lines at stop lights. Clearing the road for emergency vehicles is something I experience very often. People here are accustomed to clearing a path and it usually goes very smoothly. However, sometimes there is the clueless imbecile that refuses to go through the red light even though a firetruck or ambulance with the sirens blaring is right behind them and everyone else has made space…
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around here, moving to the sides could get half the line a ticket. The law states that you move to the right when an emergency vehicle approaches. moving to the left, or even sitting still on the left and forcing the emergency vehicle to pass on the right would be illegal and could get you a ticket.
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I just saw a TV commercial that depicts a “Karen” type woman in a Caddy Escalade passing a line-up of stopped vehicles by driving in the lane left open for emergency vehicles. A guy in one of the cars stopped on the right rolls down his window and asks Karen, “How do you sleep at night?”. She responds by telling him that she sleeps very soundly–on a mattress sold by xxxxx.
The final scene shows an ambulance that is impeded by her Escalade, and she shows annoyance.
While the commercial is somewhat witty, it wouldn’t cause me to buy a mattress from that company.
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+1
Seeing that commercial would have the opposite of their intended effect on me- a lifelong aversion to their brand…
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Actually, that is a better representation of my feelings about that mattress retailer.
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How about stopping at red light and there is no turn lane? You are going straight and car behind you wants to turn? I’ve gone thru this intersection for 20yrs and always stay way left.
Then, you have situations where there is only one traffic lane, and it is both a turn lane and a “straight-ahead” lane. About 20 years ago, in Massachusetts, I learned for the first time that the term Masshole was accurate after being honked at multiple times because I was going straight, and the jerks in back of me apparently wanted me to turn right. There was no left lane, and the only traffic lane served as both a right turn lane and a straight-ahead lane.
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That is why the middle finger was invented… 
(yeah yeah I know all about road rage, no hate mail please)
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