America is fucked
America is fucked
186 comments
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This is a funny clip and an accurate depiction of NYC congestion.
But, I live in a major city and we make way for ambulances. If it's this bad we'll end up with civilians running red lights or cops on motorbikes to unfuck gridlock.
I myself ran a red light last week in rush hour to GTFO when I hear sirens. Just turn on my hazards, slow roll into the red light. Cars were already stopping for me so I was safe, then pulled over.
This is really just making fun of NYC traffic and how fucked it is. The delivery makes it extra funny since we rarely get such an animated German on the front page.
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Ja?
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I come and save you, ja?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IQLk-LF1JY
haben sie was getrunken, ja! (ja) fragt mich die Polizei, ja! ja
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I get imense stress from having an ambulance behind me even if there's plenty of room to pass on the side. Immediately plotting where to go if it needs to go exactly where I am.
I can't imagine having an ambulance behind you and going 'Meh, I'm driving here.'-
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If the ambulance is immediately behind you, you've already failed.
In "we'll-behaving" countries ambulance does not lose speed. If you hear a siren, you pull over, doesn't matter if you see it or not.
I'm not directing this at you, just explaning the course of action for people like in the video.
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Ayyyy I'm driving here
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In case you wanna see a "RETTUNGSGASSE!!!" (= rescuing lane) in action this clip is what it looks like ideally. If traffic slows down for whatever reason or if there are sirens in the distance drivers are supposed to assume this formation pre-emptively and misusing it is a crime.
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That's how it's supposed to work in the US too. Maybe it depends on the state but in MN at least it's illegal to fail to pull over for emergency vehicles. If you see any emergency vehicle on the road running with lights on then you are supposed to stop and pull off to the side so that they can have the whole road.
The video in the OP looks nuts to me too. I've never seen people fail to pull over for an emergency vehicle in my area.
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This is how it is in Manhattan when it’s busy. It’s not so much failing to pull over so much as there is nowhere to go.
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This is a very NYC phenomenon, everywhere else I’ve ever been and lived in the US moves out of the way for emergency vehicles with their lights and sirens on, I’ve seen both issues where there is nowhere to go and times where people just don’t care, every time I’m in NYC I hope to not need medical attention
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So I actually experienced one of these on 64W between VA Beach and Richmond. It was amazing how everyone including myself just instinctively moved to the sides of the road. It's not a hard concept it just takes cooperation.
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Also space to pull over is important. Here in the midwest we have room to move over and everyone does, honestly way more than is necessary. Like people start to pull over a few blocks in front of the ambulance if they just hear the siren.
New York's problem in the video is the congestion makes it hard to move out of the way when there is nowhere to go.
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At about 10 seconds on the video you can actually see a guy getting out of the way of the ambulance to let it through, though he was not doing it preemptively and the guy ahead of him couldn't care less.
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What I find strange in Germany is that there is literally an emergency lane on the right side of the highway but they block it to make a corridor in the center
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Eh, feels like he's playing up the stereotype of the eternal German.
"...WE DON'T DO ZIS IN GERMANY! YOU BUILD HOUSES WITH WOOD? WE DON'T DO ZIS IN GERMANY. YOU DON'T SEPARATE GLASS FROM RECYCLING? BUT WE DO ZIS IN GERMANY!!!!
I'm allowed to say that, I'm German myself. We are obnoxious and tone-deaf fuckers.
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Could just be they talk so damn loud they can't hear anyone else.
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hwGd3QWgTLs&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD
For contrast: a video of a more congested street in Paris 17 years ago. The situations aren't completely comparable: bigger emergency vehicle, smaller other vehicles, smaller street with less options to get out of the way, ... One other major difference and the reason I'm posting this, is that 30 seconds into the video, you can see that most drivers have moved to the sides of the road AHEAD of the firetruck and that they are holding still while waiting on the firetruck to pass them. The street + path are less than ideal and there isn't really enough room, so the truck is still not going very fast, but it's at least able to keep moving. By moving to the sides, the drivers also blocked in that smaller firetruck that was coming from the side street, so that's going to cause some confusement after the big one has passed.
The reason that that NYC ambulance is completely stuck in traffic, isn't because of space, because there is plenty compared to that Parisian street, but it's the drivers who are not creating a path. It's not an infrastructure problem, it's something that can be taught + encouraged if there is a political will to make a change.
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Distracted drivers are a serious problem in more ways than one. A couple weeks ago I was 2nd in line at a red light, only us 2 in that lane and several more in the other. An ambulance drove up behind us flashing and it was immediately clear the shortest path through the intersection was for our 2 cars to clear out. I put on my hazards and starting alternating lights and horn, while the person ahead sat blithely scrolling through their phone while the ambulance and I were both laying on the horn and didn’t move until the light turned green. Even then, didn’t pull aside so the bus had to weave around him. The lack of situational awareness and empathy on the road is sadly lacking.
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Yeah, smartphones are a menace as well in traffic, especially when combined with someone as oblivious as in your example :). The government(s) in my country has had several police + information campaigns against smartphone use since a few years. There's now also a fine of 175 euro + loss of driver's license for 15 days for using the smartphone while driving in traffic. And waiting in traffic, still counts as driving. If used for navigation, then the destination has to be put in before starting to drive & the smartphone has to be in a holder or connected to the infotainment system.
This heavier punishment is pretty recent and the chance of being caught seems low, so there's still often people using smartphones inappropriately. Last one I saw this week was an oblivious teenager on a bicycle. It'll be interesting to see if there's been a noticable change in a few years.
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It's German John Cena.
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John Zena
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*Johann
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I’m not an American but I’ve lived in Washington for years. Every time an Ambulance is moving with its siren on, people move to the side of the road to let it pass. This guy is just inaccurate.
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Manhattan has gridlock that prevents this. There's no space to move into.
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yup, I was on a street so narrow just a couple months ago that I couldn't pull over far enough to let a firetruck go by. I had pulled over as far as I could. The truck got behind me and I couldn't move over. SO I just said "fuck it" - and zoomed into the road as fast as was safe and turned off the road the first place I could find.
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But surely this one example is enough to judge an entire country by!
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Ja.
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So why not put paramedics on a e-bike, so they can actually arrive at the scene first. It’s not like the patient gets put into the ambulance immediately on arrival. Might as well have someone take care of the patient before the ambulance arrives. Just put a e-bike in the back of the ambulance or rack it on the front.
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Shitty solution to a shitty problem in my opinion. Quite often patients are indeed put into the ambulance immediately. Ambulances also have tons of medical equipment, none of which you can fit on a bike, obviously. Then there's the question of paramedic safety, especially given how many road accidents there are in the US. Plus, that would be a major cost for healthcare providers. Instead of 2 paramedics, you'd need 3 or 4, since they can't go solo, again due to safety concerns. Overall this isn't something we should be looking for alternative solutions to. You can't keep making workarounds for systemic issues, like horrible road/traffic design or society being severely uneducated.
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Our service uses bikes in highly urban areas, but I can’t speak to the pros or cons of it as I don’t have the brain power right now. It’s a large service, but not anywhere near a significant part of the service. Urban stuff, large gatherings stuff, terrain stuff with quads and even a boat.
They carry 100lbs of gear.
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Their solution is going to be ai controlled drones, you think they're going to create solutions that require people? This problem is the first step to robo ambulances, we already have robo police drones where I live in America.
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That sounds like a legit idea. Most important 1st aid gear can fit in a backpack. Inhaler. Defibrillator. Tracheostomy Tube. Etc including stuff to stop bleeding, including the knowledge of how to do it correctly.
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Where I live in Canada traffic moves for anything EMS related with lights(other than a tow truck unless of course they have an EMS escort). We pull up on to sidewalks, curbs, and anything really to clear a path. Heck I've seen people put their vehicle into a snow bank or a ditch to get out of the way. I guess we're of the mindset that others will do the same for us should we be the ones awaiting EMS to arrive or deliver us to an ER.
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Feeling confused. Why can't the ambulance go through the small gaps between sidewalk. In my country ambulance drivers drive like its GTA.
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theres people on it? Like regularly?
Also i doubt an ambulance would even fit in most places, chances are it's going to get stuck, immediately.
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https://v.redd.it/1u707p7uieve1/DASH_720.mp4?source=fallback
For perspective this is how ambulance zooms past traffic here.
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This is the kind of culture you get and deserve when you allow corporations to control your country and culture
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It's not just corporations. It's the individual over the collective. And that is just the nature of certain societies, specifically more competitive societies. In India for example, the mindset of everyone in traffic is 'me over others' - fuck everyone else, i grab what space I can get. If I don't, the next fucker will. Like if it starts raining, your 1 hour trip is now 3 hours, not 1.5 hours because there will be a jam at every intersection in the city. There are just so many people on the road and infrastructure (and society / government at large) that hasn't lent itself to cooperation but rather competition. It becomes their mindset, it becomes everyone's mindset. That is why many from that region turn right politically. I bet it's the same for many Latin countries.
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I'm in Portugal, and it's definitely not.
I mean, people are clearly more selfish behind a wheel than they are in person (a lot of Portuguese "good manners" is really just social shame, which isn't there when people feel anonymous, so many become a lot less polite when inside a car), but everybody just moves over when an ambulance comes and for example you're more likely to be given way to turn off the road across the other lane, than not.
You do see some asshole shit (for example, cars trying to scare pedestrians into waiting for the car to pass before entering a zebra crossing), but generally it's a minority (which the notable exception of people not using direction indicators to help others, only themselves, which is a majority) rather than the majority.
In my experience Spain is pretty similar.
From own experience in Latin America it wasn't much worse, though I was only ever in Peru and I wasn't long in Lima to get a good feeling for their big-city driving.
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I don't see what this comment has to do with the shitpost/video but OK.
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There are cities that use medics on motor bikes for this exact reason. They can't evac someone but getting there quickly to use a defibrillator or control bleeding could make a difference.
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Absolutely every second for an ambulance matters. Every. Second.
People blocking an ambulance should be punished and made examples of.
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There was plenty of space in the video to move the car out of the way. Maybe you would need to stop for a minute because you're parking close to the curb/car but more than enough for the ambulance to pass
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I live in Atlanta. One of the slowest most congested city's in America. We hold record to the slowest intersection in the country. In the smallest worst parts of the city we get out of the way for emergency vehicles.
Have you ever been to a real city?
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You should see major cities in latin america if you think that's bad. In many countries it's like they don't even care.
The US has no excuse though, we should be way, way better.
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I’m from Chile and whenever you’re in a jam and an ambulance needs to get through, cars move out of their way to let it through. In Santiago, at least. We also stop at zebra crossings to let pedestrians cross.
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Sure and Santiago is a horrible example. I was just there a few months ago. It feels the most like boston of anywhere else in latin america. When I was in el salvador I thought I was gonna get robbed at the airport, where they pat you down at each departure gate.
The wages are livable, the neighborhoods are safe(mostly), the housing is affordable, the food is terrible (compared to lima anyway.) I couldn't get enough of the mountains.
In lima I was getting cased by pickpockets, in santiago I didn't ever feel that way. Lima's traffic is on another level. Santiago's rush hour is much more organized and you have way more street lights and better drivers. In lima as a pedestrian you have to RUN so they don't hit you. In santiago they stop and let you cross - something nearly unheard of in a lot of other latin american nations.
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Why would cities in latin america have excuses?
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Education quality is a tip of the iceberg.
Talk to someone who went to a public school in say the dominican republic. I've heard stories of years of kids just waiting around with next to no actual teaching involved from someone who was physically there in their childhood. If you don't go to a private school odds are you aren't going to get any real education or structure beyond what you pick up at home... and odds are your parents were in the same boat.
The US education system has been nothing like that, it is going to get like that in the south though. In remote low population areas it's very possible to get bad - and clearly some teenage pregnancies disrupt things in the US, but in the DR it's a lot worse.
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I've seen roads so congested in NYC that they literally cannot get through. Saw a firetruck honk for a solid 5 minutes before getting to move anywhere.
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You're fucked ja
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Oopsie whoopsie.
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Were all the "ja"s an affectation or do modern Germans just ja that much?
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Definitely affectation. I suspect the strong German accent is as well. His vocabulary is too good for it.
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What a bunch of hosers, eh?
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I work for a German company. They definitely ja that much. My wife couldn't believe how many times they said it when I was on a company call with the higher ups the other day.
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As a non-native English speaker, ages ago I moved to The Netherlands (were they also use "ja" for "yes") and once I learned Dutch and got used to speak it as much or more than English, I noticed a definite tendency on my English for my "yes" to come out quite "ja"-like (sorta like an "yeah" with a pretty much silent "e"), though granted not as strong as that guy.
Maybe this is some kind of broader linguistic tendency (non-native English speakers used to a "yes" in a different language that's pretty close to one of the English words for "yes" - in this case "yeah" - just doing the lazy thing of using the other language word or a softened version of it because English-speakers get it) rather than a German-specific thing.
I would be curious to hear from Dutch people and people from Scandinavia (if I'm not mistaken most if not all of whose national languages use a "ja" for "yes") if they tend to do that or not.
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Yeah
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That's mostly an affectation. And as a German myself I have to say that his accent is atrociously german.
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Yes
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That dude is just exaggerating the accent and pandering to get views. He’s trying to be the ‘in Germany we don’t say’-guy but for mericans. Unfortunately he isn’t funny, which caters to the ‘Germans have no humor’ stereotype
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Wenn die Polizei vorbeifährt, ja?
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Ja?
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Dann halt ich erst mal an, ja
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There’s no place for anyone to move to. The congestion is such that you cannot get out of the way. The Van Wyck alone will slow an ambulance to 3-5mph because of traffic. You cannot get out of the way if there’s no place to go!
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As if the usa is the only country in the world with congested rush hour traffic. I've been in streets that were way more tightly packed + chaotic than this and people would still clear a path for vehicles with sirens. The emergency vehicle would only be able to go 20 to 30 kmh without a motorcycle escort, but that's still significantly faster than what we're seeing here.
What we're seeing in this video, is that (some) vehicles that are directly in front of the ambulance move out of the way, but vehicles that are a tiny bit further ahead, don't even try. If a vehicle that is directly in front of the ambulance can move out of the way, then a vehicle that is 30 places ahead, is also able to move out of the way, but they don't even try ... What should happen is that as soon as drivers hear a siren, they should start looking for where it's coming from and then clear a path, and drivers should also especially not be driving into the path that others are clearing. Instead it seems like these drivers wait till the siren is right behind them and only then some start to move out of the way.
Looking for excuses in American exceptionalism reads like a case of "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas". This particular problem is something that can be easily improved upon by a public awareness campaign and some light fines for those that keep obstructing after the campaign has been running for some time. But what's obviously even easier than that, is finding an excuse to continue doing nothing about the problem.
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Part of the problem is that the "rugged individualism" that America was founded on also equates to entitlement. The last generations that truly had it rough, where a community spirit was important to surviving are dying or gone, and no one has learned their lesson. Yet.
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Well, I guess you’ve got it all figured out then. Just stupid Americans, right?
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There's congestion in German cities too. The point isn't to drive away. During rettungsgasse, nobody goes anywhere. They just make way by stopping to the sides.
The problem in NY is that the cars are too big for the lanes to do that.
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There are no lanes to move aside into. It has nothing to do with vehicle size or “driving away”. I really don’t know what to tell you, I’ve spent plenty of time in several German cities as well as US cities, the comparison isn’t there. There are no breakdown lanes or shoulders to move into in many places to make room for emergency vehicles. You’re welcome to argue all you want, but I drive in and around NYC regularly so I’m more than familiar.
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The problem in NY is that the cars are too big for the lanes to do that.
the only place available for people to do this is parking lanes and bus/bike lanes.
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There seems to be quite some space there compared to what I've seen emergency vehicles use here in the Netherlands. Recently there was one traveling across a pretty narrow bridge and a road that normally allocated 2 cars. The traffic was completely stuck and yet somehow the emergency vehicle got enough space to travel through. It outpaces me while I was racing down the bridge on a bike. That was more crowded and narrow than this. People went everywhere with their car to create a way for the emergency vehicle
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Yeah but they do actually just stop. If there is a siren anywhere in the area, and everyone just stops driving their car. Even when there is somewhere to go, no one ever does.
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Yeah that’s usually at an intersection where the only place to go to is into a red light with crossing traffic. A quick search of laws in the US shows no relief for motorists just because there’s a fire truck behind you trying to get through. If you run the red light to make way you could be ticketed (even though it would be real asshole to issue the ticket), and if someone hits you while you run the red or move into tbe intersection to make way it’s your fault. So there’s a lot of disincentive to move in those cases. Where I live people all move over if they can. Otherwise they stay put to be predictable and let the emergency vehicle use the breakdown lane or oncoming traffic. Worst thing is when people cluelessly start randomly trying to outsmart the ambulance and cause a clusterfuck of cars that nobody can get past. US drivers have fuckall for discipline.
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I saw this exact same thing yesterday in Cologne Germany but not with one, but two ambulances.
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As a city dweller I never seen this happen in Germany ever in my life. So not too common at least.
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Germany is better than most places, but it happens here too. It could be one of those things you only notice when you're looking for it.
I've never seen someone open carry a gun in the US but when you listen to people it sounds like everyone does.
I was a my friends WG (group apartment) and her roommate just got back from the US. She was shocked that the Americans even put sugar in their bread. Something something it's why they are all fat and unhealthy. I was curious, so got all of the german bread there... And you know what? It all had a higher sugar content than the American bread example.
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To be fair, with the congestion that severe, the ambulance should use helicopters. Like they do here in London.
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Good luck finding a spot to land somewhere close within Manhattan. Unless you happen to have the heart attack next to a car park (or the central park) that also happens to not be heavily used right now there's hardly any spot to safely land.
in London and other cities it's less of a problem given we don't build that many high rise buildings and got more big old market places and small parks.
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Not sure you want that with no faa
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I'm sure you DON'T want that with no FAA
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He's just demonstrating New York City is fucked, not America
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Yes this is a NY City thing. Everywhere else we all move out of the way.
But fuck it, US deserves some negative propaganda, so have at it!
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It took a sinister turn right at the end...
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Anyone got a mirror? It would be nice if catbox didn't block vpn traffic, I'm not disabling my vpn for a meme
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Love it!
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Seen this happen in European countries too, eventhough I despise american fascist pigs
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When your MPD switches to Richthofen
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Ayyyyy! I'm walkin here!!
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Lol, as if this hasn't been how it's always been... These things are for rich people, the rest of us find another way, or you know, die.
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Someone moving out of the way still doesn't equal everyone moving out of the way. He's way ahead of them at the end of the video. The point still stands.
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I'm amazed you could see that since he edited it out of the video so you couldn't see it.
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What's German for "trying too hard?"
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its a whole movie trope that this is an issue in europe because their infrastrucutre doesnt support cars
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Nobody more annoying than a German tourist removed about everything
Edit:
ITT Americans hate being called out for their bullshit, unless it’s by Germans 🤔
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There might be somebody… ☝🏼
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Yeah, but do you know what their mum says about them?
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I'd say waiting for an ambulance while a loved one dies in front of you just because assholes wouldn't get out of the way is more annoying. No doubt followed by some health insurance bullshit that makes zero sense in any other country. But no, it's the tourist who's wrong.
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But they at least still have ambulance. Wouldnt want to be in the UK while having a heartattack
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Are you saying the UK doesn't have ambulances?
That's a ridiculous and easily disprovable claim.
Also aren't the nonexistent uk ambulances free?
As in not charged at a rate of thousands of dollars, they'd still be tax funded I assume.
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I'm only across the water in Ireland and I can tell you from experience that ambulances arrive quickly, are free and so is the treatment. The UK health system is measurably better than ours so I feel like this is plucked from somewhere that the sun doesn't shine.
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I might as well not have one here in the states, I'm not wealthy enough. My health plan is to walk it off until I die young
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If you have an heart attack they are there in ~8 Minutes
Maybe look at the actual data before spewing dumb shit
https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/ambulance-response-times
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I have family over there and they told me that health system went from one of the best pre brexit to quite bad today with huge waiting times for ambulance.
We may are a bit spoiled by the german health system.
And yes, i know that US have one of the most expensive and worst health systems for a so called first world country.
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Well, maybe your family called for a bullshit emergency.
The wait times for actual life threatening emergencies are low. But the data is public, take a look for yourself.
It's the same when somebody complains about long wait times in the ER in Germany. If they had to wait a long time, it wasn't an emergency. Simple as that.
Here is a video that explains it to non-medical people how it works
And here the data about ambulance wait times in the UK
https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/ambulance-response-times
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Oh look a cyclist removed about shit
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i lol'd
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Yeah, ok, he's not wrong, but also, he can f--- right off. We don't need/want foreigners 2 cents, we know it's fucked, but fuck him. Sorry.
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Haha, do you mean that for real? I am curious who you are in real life, you seem to be an interesting person.
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I live on a small 14-acre farm in my parents' 5 bedroom house. I had some issues and moved back home several years ago, but now I couldn't leave because there is too much to do, and they are older now and need more help around here.
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Well hell yeah. Who is this German ass hole? Thinks he fucking superior? I think his country and people have plenty of their own issues and bullshit. It was 1 stuck ambulance in NY city, and he's going to talk all that bull shit about our country?
I'm sorry, but I'm not very patriotic until I see this kinda shit. That German can fuck on back to his own country and act like prick about his own ambulances stuck in traffic.
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America is a bit bigger than your NY road...
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Is all the same tho. All of the US is full of carbrainrot.
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This is beyond car brain. This is the increasing amount of people simply not giving a shit about the social contract over the years coupled with cops not doing their actual jobs in favor whatever it is they do (sitting in their cars fucking around in their phones and harassing minorities?)
But you see the lack of concern for the social contract in many other aspects of american life. Asking people to wear a paper mask during a pandemic was probably the most notable recent non car example. We all know how that went. In other cultures it’s a regular practice; you simply do it as a courtesy when you have recently had a cold. In A america during a pandemic 30-40% of the population revealed themselves to be utterly pathetic toddlers that can’t handle being asked to do something by a perceived authority figure or slightly inconvenienced.
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This isn’t cars this is people and their culture.
I am from the UK, a large city too, and we have lots of cars and incredibly busy roads where it’s standstill a lot, but cars will move out of the way for emergency vehicles, you’ll drive on the kerb if you have to.
Edit: We also have paramedics on motorcycles and bicycles so that they can get there even faster if traffic is an issue. Or in city centres.
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Where I live, if a person on the crosswalk doesn't move out the way of an ambulance, it goes on the national news lol.
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If you accept this one anecdote of an ambulance being stuck in NY, then you have to accept my anecdote that everyone in the PNW moves over to let ambulances through no problem.
It’s not all the same.
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I mean hes got a point though. Its clear these people care more about their destination. Im from NY ive seen this plenty elsewhere, in many states. heck even seen it in canada. People just suck sometimes.
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186 comments
I speak perfect english but still use „ja”, ja?
Ja.
Ja.
Das ist der WegThis is the way, ja?
I assumed it was some weird YouTube thing he was doing. None of my German friends use that haha.
Wenn die Polizei vorbei fährt, ja! (ja)
\ dann halt ich erst mal an, ja! (ja)
Ja sonst ist es nicht authentisch genug. Aber war schon witzig.