[alloyd68]

Only if you are blind and deaf. If you are blind and deaf, how do you have a drivers license?

[SenorFunkyPants]

LOL at the police car driver.

[infamousdiz]

Originally Posted by Lups

That is really sad but I have to also say that emergency vehicles here in the USA follow no logic. You guys take the on coming lanes, and you guys move slow. In my country (Finland) we are taught a strict etiquette on where to move and how to let you pass. You guys with your moves make it here impossible to predict where is the optimal position to not to get in the way.


In my country everybody moves their arses and it is you who take the wrong lane, if you must, the guys with lights have the strict priority.

My solution is drivers education, USA should have that.

The rule is everyone moves to the right....so in a 4 lane road with a traffic device if there is a lane open lets say all the way to the right and the far left lane is 20 cars deep by law your route is to move all traffic from the left to the right not utilizing the clear lane. Do i use the clear lane, mostly, and if someone runs into me because they followed the rules I am at fault. I work in an urban area, biggest problem for us is pedestrians work right in front of us with no concern.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by infamousdiz

The rule is everyone moves to the right....so in a 4 lane road with a traffic device if there is a lane open lets say all the way to the right and the far left lane is 20 cars deep by law your route is to move all traffic from the left to the right not utilizing the clear lane. Do i use the clear lane, mostly, and if someone runs into me because they followed the rules I am at fault. I work in an urban area, biggest problem for us is pedestrians work right in front of us with no concern.

I guess it's different by locality. I also used to volunteer in one of the most if not near the top of the most congested metropolitan areas in the US (DC Metro area). I remember riding shot gun with one of my friends when an EMS vehicle was coming up behind us responding to a call. He started to move over to the right as many people have been taught in the past. But I told him just move over to the left as it was the closest side of the road to him to clear his vehicle. He was surprised to hear this from me. I told him it was taught to me when I was going through driver training to run the EMS rigs at my station. At the time, it was a new guideline for drivers and I guess hasn't been communicated very well. The rationale (and I agree with it) is moving to the side of the road closest to you eliminates the drama of cars on the far left trying to jockey over to the right.

Thankfully, I haven't had any run ins with pedestrians responding for calls. Just idiot drivers. And I had to have drive once into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road because traffic was so backed up on the road I was driving on. Let me tell you, I don't ever want to do that again.

[Lups]

I live in WA. Don't move here to do your jobs.

[infamousdiz]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

I guess it's different by locality. I also used to volunteer in one of the most if not near the top of the most congested metropolitan areas in the US (DC Metro area). I remember riding shot gun with one of my friends when an EMS vehicle was coming up behind us responding to a call. He started to move over to the right as many people have been taught in the past. But I told him just move over to the left as it was the closest side of the road to him to clear his vehicle. He was surprised to hear this from me. I told him it was taught to me when I was going through driver training to run the EMS rigs at my station. At the time, it was a new guideline for drivers and I guess hasn't been communicated very well. The rationale (and I agree with it) is moving to the side of the road closest to you eliminates the drama of cars on the far left trying to jockey over to the right.

Thankfully, I haven't had any run ins with pedestrians responding for calls. Just idiot drivers. And I had to have drive once into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road because traffic was so backed up on the road I was driving on. Let me tell you, I don't ever want to do that again.

I believe yielding to the right is the standard from DOT guidelines/rules. Metro DC has volunteers? Crazy how different just 300 miles away is. We are a closed shop and only first res-ponder no transport.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by infamousdiz

I believe yielding to the right is the standard from DOT guidelines/rules. Metro DC has volunteers? Crazy how different just 300 miles away is. We are a closed shop and only first res-ponder no transport.

And you may be correct that it's DOT guidelines. But does it mean it's the best policy? I believe not. And I've witnessed how bad things can get when everyone is trying to move over to the right. The roads down here usually have some extra space between the solid white line marking the edge of the through lane and the curb to allow cars to create enough room on both sides for emergency vehicles to get by going straight down the middle. I've witnessed personally the time difference between everyone trying to move over to the right and people just moving to the edge closest to them.

DC proper is career only. My station is in the immediate suburbs of Maryland. There's a mix of career and volunteers here. Some stations are manned by career only personnel and some have a mix. The mix is the majority of the stations in Montgomery County. Station 16 and 25 for example are career only. My station Rescue 2 has career staff during "business" hours (6 AM to 6 PM) Monday through Friday. The rest of the time is done by volunteers.

[upstatedoc]

This happened near me:

[infamousdiz]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

And you may be correct that it's DOT guidelines. But does it mean it's the best policy? I believe not. And I've witnessed how bad things can get when everyone is trying to move over to the right. The roads down here usually have some extra space between the solid white line marking the edge of the through lane and the curb to allow cars to create enough room on both sides for emergency vehicles to get by going straight down the middle. I've witnessed personally the time difference between everyone trying to move over to the right and people just moving to the edge closest to them.

DC proper is career only. My station is in the immediate suburbs of Maryland. There's a mix of career and volunteers here. Some stations are manned by career only personnel and some have a mix. The mix is the majority of the stations in Montgomery County. Station 16 and 25 for example are career only. My station Rescue 2 has career staff during "business" hours (6 AM to 6 PM) Monday through Friday. The rest of the time is done by volunteers.

We make it work and get to where we are needed, if that means going the wrong way on a one-way street so be it. Adapt and overcome

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by infamousdiz

We make it work and get to where we are needed, if that means going the wrong way on a one-way street so be it. Adapt and overcome

We make it work too. As I said in a previous post, I've driven down the wrong side of a multi-lane heavily traveled road to get around almost a mile long traffic back up. I got us through safely but again, it's something I don't want to repeat again especially with the piss poor drivers in the DC area.

[NEFARIOUS]

But then again, I know some deaf drivers, but they are trained to be extra keen of their surroundings... Not to mention if the siren is loud enough, they can sense the airwave vibrations (kinda like how you can feel YOUR car vibrate if someone with tons of subs pulls up next to you, but as they don't have a sense of hearing, other senses are stronger).

Other things that sets the US apart from that Euro siren? At the very least here in CA, you can blare the airhorn (fire) or buzzer (cops/ambulance), or at the very least alternate the tone between a traditional drawn-out one and a shorter one (some areas even sound like a toy gun)... Plus even in Downtown it got confusing with a delayed 2nd siren once, meaning I saw ONE ambulance but heard 2 sirens, and the first time 2 friends saw that, we were all thinking, "where the hell is the 2nd one?" until it passed.

Also some units have a bullhorn system, especially around here where we get a ton of FOB drivers, and it's almost sad and funny to hear "RRRrrrrrRRRRRRRRR *sudden interruption* MOVE YOUR CAR!" RRRRRrrrrrr-- "Out of the way NOW!* rrrrRRRRRR...

[Lups]

Originally Posted by NEFARIOUS

But then again, I know some deaf drivers, but they are trained to be extra keen of their surroundings... Not to mention if the siren is loud enough, they can sense the airwave vibrations (kinda like how you can feel YOUR car vibrate if someone with tons of subs pulls up next to you, but as they don't have a sense of hearing, other senses are stronger).

Other things that sets the US apart from that Euro siren? At the very least here in CA, you can blare the airhorn (fire) or buzzer (cops/ambulance), or at the very least alternate the tone between a traditional drawn-out one and a shorter one (some areas even sound like a toy gun)... Plus even in Downtown it got confusing with a delayed 2nd siren once, meaning I saw ONE ambulance but heard 2 sirens, and the first time 2 friends saw that, we were all thinking, "where the hell is the 2nd one?" until it passed.

Also some units have a bullhorn system, especially around here where we get a ton of FOB drivers, and it's almost sad and funny to hear "RRRrrrrrRRRRRRRRR *sudden interruption* MOVE YOUR CAR!" RRRRRrrrrrr-- "Out of the way NOW!* rrrrRRRRRR...

Ours are on mute compared to yours. I shall now quote my driving instructor translated, but his words, not mine..

" if you do see an emergency vehicle in your mirrors , and you can not get out of the way in 300 meters ( the minimum observation distance a driver usually has in both ways. Sure cities make this shorter at times, but tell that to the dinosaurs), they should run you over. Use your fucking mirrors, even in heavy traffic you can see the people behind you moving out off their way.

They are not on their way to save fucking cat from a tree. Move your fucking car. Even run a light since the others can see them too".

From the mouth of a 70+ year old man. We are strict about this.