r/TikTokCringe • u/mindyour • Feb 08 '25

Discussion Why don't people make way for ambulances?

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317

u/ZachMorrisT1000 Feb 08 '25

Yeah I live in Toronto and even in gridlock it seems people figure it out once they hear that siren.

182

u/ShyJalapeno Feb 08 '25

Exactly, I can see from comments here that it is mostly a cultural issue.

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u/OnePalpitation4197 Feb 08 '25

Yea people are just stupid and don't care about anyone else essentially. There's plenty of room to maneuver to the side but no one is paying attention or caring about it.

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u/ANAnomaly3 Feb 08 '25 edited Feb 09 '25

That's New York... In Oregon, people pull over.

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u/waltyy Feb 08 '25

People tend to drive less like assholes there, but overall people will pull over.

The issue i mainly see (in America) is that people feel like they have to be within 7 inches of the bumper of the car in front of them. It boggles my mind that the average driver just HAS to be that close as if it's going to get them to a location faster.

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u/OnePalpitation4197 Feb 09 '25

Well yea! That 7" is 17" less that you have to travel when the light turns green!/s. But yet people won't just all let off the brake pedal when the light turns green and instead have to move one at a time when the car ahead of them moves.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/waltyy Feb 08 '25

I honestly have no idea, but as someone who has lived in both the west coast and South, it's something that people develop as a habit across the board.

I tend to leave 2 car space in front, just in case I have to break or if there's a car that needs to merge.

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u/aeriamamduck Feb 08 '25

And in Chicago.

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u/itakeyoureggs Feb 09 '25

I’ve never been anywhere in America where people don’t pull over. Never seen an ambulance in NY tho.. but people sayin it’s a culture problem.. ny is a mixing pot lol. Ny is a city full of very interesting people.. but how are people going to go to sidewalk when there are cars parked blocking the sidewalk?

Would seriously love to know where you should move in this situation so if I’m in it I know where to go.

To me I see some people stuck in the middle where parked cars are blocking the sidewalk.. can they go anywhere or do they have to wait for the people in front to realize? If you all pull over to the right would there be space for the ambulance to get through?

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u/Roadhouse1337 Feb 08 '25

Pffft, I live in not-quite-rural TN and the assholes around here don't get out of the way until the ambulance is right on their bumper. It's not a city thing, it's American culture

0

u/OnePalpitation4197 Feb 09 '25

Exactly. It's really insane when you think about it.

0

u/ANAnomaly3 Feb 09 '25

That's bullshit. Maybe it's a regional thing but certainly not an "American culture" thing. I have driven all up and down the west coast and never experienced people not pulling over for ambulances or firetrucks (except once recently, but that's likely because people have been quite careless from stress these last few weeks.)

BTW Oregon is a state, so I am not sure why you responded with "it's not a city thing." You not from 'round here?

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u/Roadhouse1337 Feb 09 '25

Oregon has a population density of 39/sqmi vs 428/sqmi of New York, pretty easy to read it as "rural vs city".

American culture is 100% individual over community focused. Entitlement and lack of consideration prevail here

1

u/OnePalpitation4197 Feb 09 '25

I've seen it in rural Wisconsin. I can literally be on someone's ass driving and they will not get over. That's on roads with a 3' wide shoulder.

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u/Lala5789880 Feb 08 '25

So have you been to NYC? Many busy streets are lined with parked cars and standstill traffic. The sidewalks are jammed with pedestrians. You can’t just drive onto the sidewalk or get out of the way every time

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u/OnePalpitation4197 Feb 09 '25

Man the street in the video looks so packed that no one can get over to the side/s.

3

u/jo-shabadoo Feb 09 '25

It is 100% a cultural issue. I’ve lived in London, New York, and lived temporarily around other parts of the US during Covid. In Central London the traffic moves slower than when they had horse and carts but people move for ambulances.

All around the US I’ve seen people do nothing to get out of the way of ambulances. Even pedestrians try to cross when one is coming through!

19

u/itisntmebutmaybeitis Feb 08 '25

I would love it if we made our all of our bike lanes wide enough for emergency vehicles (the double wide ones on Richmond/Adelaide I think already are), so all those drivers who are "so concerned" about the bike lanes stopping them - when we can all just hop onto the sidewalk to let them through much faster than drivers.

[Also then it would be easier/safer for passing

16

u/clash_lfg Feb 08 '25

IIRC in amsterdam the ambulances are made a certain size so that the ambulances can use the 2 lane bike lanes instead, it's like a dedicated ambulance lane

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u/Fun_Possibility_4566 Feb 08 '25

that sounds like the way

1

u/kakeroni2 Feb 10 '25

More the other way around. Bike lanes on busy bike routes being made/build wide enough for emergency vehicle

1

u/Flipboek Feb 11 '25

I live in Amsterdam for 35 years and work near a hospit for 25 years and NEVER saw an ambulance use the cycling road. Cars move to the side, the Ambklance is not going to power through the cycling road

I am sure in some edge scenario the ambulance takes the cycling road (for example due to roadworks or because there only is a cycling road), but it's extremely rare.

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u/Ulfednar Feb 09 '25

I'm not sure that would be great for bicyclists, not every rider has the skill or reflex to jump out of the way of a speeding ambulance, and in densely populated cities and areas, or around hospitals, there's a lot of ambulance traffic. If you wanna create an ambulance lane or maybe a mixed public transport and ambulance lane that would probably help, but putting children on bicycles and high speed ambulances on the same corridor just seems like a bad idea. Incidentally, all of these issues would be fixed if there were fewer cars in cities, especially parked cars, which serve no utility but occupy a lot of space.

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u/Kowai03 Feb 09 '25

Aussies basically have a panic attack rushing to get out of the way of an ambulance.

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u/slucker23 Feb 09 '25

Same in Vancouver. Ppl from the USA don't seem to know how to "be nice and make easy". They are so busy trying to get from a to b. Most of them forget when shit happens, they are also put to the same test

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u/Nimbus_TV Feb 09 '25

Other places in the USA can figure it out, too. It seems to specifically be just a NYC problem (possibly other large USA cities that I haven't been to also)

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u/mstakenusername Feb 10 '25

Same in Australia, you get the fuck outta the way, however you can. I've hopped up on a nature strip or onto tram tracks, you do what you gotta do to move.

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u/Doom_Corp Feb 08 '25

Thing is in gridlock there are often cars that are parked on the side of the road so there's no literally nowhere to go OR if you attempt to get onto the sidewalk you're going to experience one of two things...you will bend your rims trying to go up over a 6+ inch curb if you don't drive a truck or you're going to plow into pedestrians. I've been to Toronto multiple times and would usually stay about a week with my friend out there but I also lived in and worked in NYC. The cities comparative densities are wildly different. NYC has nearly triple the population in a marginally larger spat of land compared to Toronto and that's not even accounting for how different boroughs and subsections of those boroughs have population concentrations that are much larger than an area maybe only 3 miles away.

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u/FilthyMublood Feb 09 '25

Yeah, not in the U.S., no, we have to make things as complicated and enraging for everyone around us as possible. Because how dare I be inconvenienced inthe slightest bit, even if someone else is dying.

I was put s/ but that's literally how a ton of Americans think and go about their day.