Not to defend our shitty car-centric society but most places in the US aren't so bad. I would guess that New York in particular presents more challenges for smooth ambulance traffic than almost anywhere else in the country due to its high traffic density and relatively narrow roads and streets. People likely want to move and can't. Excluding bicycle issues, Americans are pretty good about observing traffic laws and knowing when to give way. (but yes, to a German person, American drivers probably seem like troglodytes)

Audio: Whoever needed it, they're dead.
Subtitle: Whoever needed it, they're okay.

That's why nobody drives in New York. Too much traffic.

For anyone wondering, the Rettungsgasse ("rescue aisle") is something we do on longer stretches of road whenever congestion happens, to allow ambulances to pass through as quickly as possible. Everyone on the right side of the road keeps to the right and everyone on the left keeps to the left, forming a roughly ambulance-sized gap in the middle. On multi-lane roads, it's formed to the right of the left-most lane.

There's also laws for it. You can get fined, if you hold up the ambulance, because you failed to form the Rettungsgasse, or if you have the audacity to drive down the Rettungsgasse to try to skip a traffic jam.

It's not really a thing in cities like shown in the video, as we'd typically try to drive into side roads or onto parking spaces or the sidewalk to make room for the ambulance. The laws don't apply there either.

I looked it up, and the Rettungsgasse isn't a thing in Germany on city streets, only on highways (Autobahnen) and roads between settlements (Außerortsstraßen). (TIL it's a thing in Germany on roads between settlements because here in Austria it is only a thing on highways.)

There's still an obligation to move out of the way for emergency vehicles, but there are situations where that simply isn't possible. There are sometimes dense urban traffic situations similar to the one in the video in Germany too.

Now I want a kinky bicycle. I just have a straight one.

And people complain that climate protestors hold up ambulances, even though they always let emergency vehicles through.

Ah, so it is because of bikes! /s

NYC needs to ban cars

No cars on the island at least

The german guy is playing it up for views but i do agree that's pretty bad. In Australia we have similar laws - you must move aside for emergency vehicles, penalty is a fine and demerit points on your license.

And in practice it is unusual for cars not to move - usually someone elderly/distracted that didn't see or hear them and probably should get a driving retest. The ambulance will squelch their siren / blast their horns as a reminder for people slow to move, but in my 20 odd years of city driving I have never seen an ambulance stuck like in OPs video - and yes, every major city gets traffic just as heavy as that with lanes just as wide.

This is a video of an ambulance running through fairly heavy traffic in Sydney that shows how rarely they get blockaded by traffic and how most drivers try to do the right thing. Low res unfortunately, but it is 11 years old. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsplO_2l4hE

Park near a fire hydrant or pass a stopped school bus and everybody freaks out, but this is just fine somehow

In my experience this, and running red lights, is more of an American phenomena than one inherent to cars

Never send paramedics to do a German cyclist’s job!

Dieser Kommentarbereich ist nun Eigentum der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

This is something of a new development in my experience. When I first started driving, people would actually move over to allow emergency vehicles to pass. But since COVID, it's just gotten ridiculous. Absolutely nobody pulls the fuck over anymore.

I am also pretty sure it's still against the law to not make way for emergency vehicles.

alt source? catbox won't load for me and many others.

This is because Americans are garbage people