GRRRR... move right for sirens and lights!

[aquaoren]

Its not always the right hand lane, i was driving in NYC the other week and they put them down the middle lane, so that everyone on the right moves further right and those on the left go further left - parting of the waves.

I always pull over when they get within about 50yds or so behind me and let them pass - this always seems to happen in the built up part of town in a 30mph zone. However, i then seem to find that even with an open road and the speed limit that is above 30mph, that they cant go over 30mph, however urgent the case might be that they are transporting. I usually end up having to follow them a bunch before they pull off the road toward their destination, not overtaking them out of respect even though the speed limit would allow me to do so - why dont/cant fire trucks and ambulances drive any faster? Are they too heavy, underpowered, have they got limiters on their engines or laws they have to abide by? I have seen them in the UK doing 70mph or more on "interstate-like" motorways, but here i might hear a siren and see some lights coming on a ramp behind me, but unless the traffic is really backed up it seems the ambulance/fire truck just gets left behind due to its slow speed with a chasm of space in front of them from others not wanting to overtake the emergency vehicles, but them not going as fast as vehicles way in front - i just dont get it, this isnt a whine about them, just wondering why they go so slow if there is an emergency. Maybe its just an Orlando thing?

No offense and I'm not trying to bash you or attack you personally but the way you described your behaviour when you see an EV in your mirror is the source of some of the problems described in this thread.
Lets think together: you move away when they come close enough, which in your opinion is 50 yards.
Safe distance on the highway is about half your speed (in km/h) in meters. So let's say, you're driving 100km/h than your safe distance to the car infront of you would be 50 meters (Or 50 yards, as 1 meter is about 1 yard if I'm correct?). It means that if you decided for yourself that 50 meters are enough, you've just condemned the EV to drive not faster than 100km/h if he wants to stay safe.
We are back to the same issues we were discussing in the driving thread couple of weeks ago. There is no solid driver education in North America and nobody is being taught how do "drive it Right"
You see the lights in your mirror, you hear the sirens, you move away immediatly without making a decision whether the EV is now close enough so I could move to a different lane. It's not your decision whether he is close enough. Your duty is to make way without any other consideration, immediatly!!!

 

[ShakaZulu]

So are you telling me that all these drivers who don't hear the sirens also don't monitor there mirrors. Am I sharing the same highway with these fools????

@ RonDawg "Perhaps in the future, car manufacturers can include circuitry in stereo systems that detects nearby sirens, which would then override what you're playing and even broadcast the siren (at a reasonable level of course) over the stereo speakers."

Excellent idea, maybe you should let the vehicle manufacturers know about this.

 

[simbrooks]

No offense and I'm not trying to bash you or attack you personally but the way you described your behaviour when you see an EV in your mirror is the source of some of the problems described in this thread.
Lets think together: you move away when they come close enough, which in your opinion is 50 yards.
Safe distance on the highway is about half your speed (in km/h) in meters. So let's say, you're driving 100km/h than your safe distance to the car infront of you would be 50 meters (Or 50 yards, as 1 meter is about 1 yard if I'm correct?). It means that if you decided for yourself that 50 meters are enough, you've just condemned the EV to drive not faster than 100km/h if he wants to stay safe.
We are back to the same issues we were discussing in the driving thread couple of weeks ago. There is no solid driver education in North America and nobody is being taught how do "drive it Right"
You see the lights in your mirror, you hear the sirens, you move away immediatly without making a decision whether the EV is now close enough so I could move to a different lane. It's not your decision whether he is close enough. Your duty is to make way without any other consideration, immediatly!!!

I dont take it as an attack in any way. It was just some kind of example of using a bit of common sense in my mind. My 50 yds estimate is probably a bit further than that, it was just a number plucked out of the air.

If the first time i see the lights a good 1/2 mile or so behind me (i do check my mirrors and see the lights a good while before i hear a siren) will i pull over immeadiately, even if i know if i could stop immeadiate that they might not even reach my current position for another 30 odd seconds if i stopped dead right there, however i might well be moving at around 60-70mph on the interstate, so the time taken to catch up to where i am as i am moving is far longer than 30 seconds or so, hence i see them coming and as they get closer (certainly not a dangerously short distance) i pull over.

The 50yds (or metres) would be about 62mph (for 100km/h), i hardly see an EV in this area (and other parts of the country i have visited) doing anything remotely near that speed on a highway. I feel my driving education is more than reasonable, it was certainly harder in the UK (45 min test on a variety of roads) than driving around the parking lot that got me my license here (stupidly easy test that i dont think half the people on Florida's roads have done, but that is a whole different topic ), not to mention the police/advanced driving courses i did as well.

As i was stating i find that the EV's dont actually go at the highway speed half the time, so am i supposed to be the only one who sees the lights and move over, because i can guarantee by the number of people i see not indicating and not using mirrors i know the siren and honking horn is the first they know of the EV's coming, that i would be the only one yielding. Trust me i have never and will never hold up an EV unless there is nowhere i can move in gridlocked traffic, even then we try to move over as best we can. I also get stuck waiting for the tailgaters to shot by ambulance chasing

All i am saying is that i would be one of the first off the road and waiting an awfully long time for the EV to catch up if i did so as soon as i saw or heard anything and by keeping on at highway speed until they get a bit closer (50yds was a bit short for a guessed figure) me, the other drivers and the EV drivers are still making good speed and safety rather than hauling it over to the shoulder immeadiately and waiting a while, without holding up the EV drivers in any way shape or form. I had this feeling mentioning that EV vehicles go slowly might be a sore spot for some, but they are deathly slow around here and pulling over as they get a bit closer rather than pulling over and waiting as soon as you see them seems like common sense to me.

 

[Kamala]

I bet myself $5 when I read the title of the thread that the author was from the Puget Sound. Been here five years and still can't get over how bad the driving is. Best solution for a PNW ambulance? Drive in the right lane, there's nobody there anyway since nobody believes they're going slow enough to be in the right lane even though the only thing they've passed since '82 is gas and the occasional kidney stone. Don't worry emergency folks, no road rage here, I commute on the bus.

 

[aquaoren]

I dont take it as an attack in any way. It was just some kind of example of using a bit of common sense in my mind. My 50 yds estimate is probably a bit further than that, it was just a number plucked out of the air.

If the first time i see the lights a good 1/2 mile or so behind me (i do check my mirrors and see the lights a good while before i hear a siren) will i pull over immeadiately, even if i know if i could stop immeadiate that they might not even reach my current position for another 30 odd seconds if i stopped dead right there, however i might well be moving at around 60-70mph on the interstate, so the time taken to catch up to where i am as i am moving is far longer than 30 seconds or so, hence i see them coming and as they get closer (certainly not a dangerously short distance) i pull over.

The 50yds (or metres) would be about 62mph (for 100km/h), i hardly see an EV in this area (and other parts of the country i have visited) doing anything remotely near that speed on a highway. I feel my driving education is more than reasonable, it was certainly harder in the UK (45 min test on a variety of roads) than driving around the parking lot that got me my license here (stupidly easy test that i dont think half the people on Florida's roads have done, but that is a whole different topic ), not to mention the police/advanced driving courses i did as well.

As i was stating i find that the EV's dont actually go at the highway speed half the time, so am i supposed to be the only one who sees the lights and move over, because i can guarantee by the number of people i see not indicating and not using mirrors i know the siren and honking horn is the first they know of the EV's coming, that i would be the only one yielding. Trust me i have never and will never hold up an EV unless there is nowhere i can move in gridlocked traffic, even then we try to move over as best we can. I also get stuck waiting for the tailgaters to shot by ambulance chasing

All i am saying is that i would be one of the first off the road and waiting an awfully long time for the EV to catch up if i did so as soon as i saw or heard anything and by keeping on at highway speed until they get a bit closer (50yds was a bit short for a guessed figure) me, the other drivers and the EV drivers are still making good speed and safety rather than hauling it over to the shoulder immeadiately and waiting a while, without holding up the EV drivers in any way shape or form. I had this feeling mentioning that EV vehicles go slowly might be a sore spot for some, but they are deathly slow around here and pulling over as they get a bit closer rather than pulling over and waiting as soon as you see them seems like common sense to me.

I see where you are coming from but I still disagree.
The thing is that you can not estimate the speed of a vehicle that is follwing you by looking at the mirror unless you look at the mirror continously which isn't safe either because you should be looking to the direction you're heading
I'll stick to km/h with my examples and ask you whether you know how quickly you'd sit in the trunk of the car infront of you if you'd be going 180 km/h and the one infront of you is doing only 100km/h? You would be amazed how quickly it goes.
I'm not a EMS, Fire engine or a police car driver but when looking at the North American cars and their engines, I'm fairly sure that the vehicles aren't undermotorized compared to the European vehicles that I'm more familiar with. I'd make a guess that these vehicles can go faster than they are going and that the driver would love to go faster sometimes but they aren't able to develope the appropriate speed because someone infront of them thinks that they are slow anyway and blocks the lane. And even if they have a stretch of road they could be able to develope the speed, they'll have to slow down for the first one that doesn't move away fast enough
We have couple of police officers on the board, maybe they can give us some insight in what their experience is and how they see it

 

[simbrooks]

Oren, now i can agree cop cars can go like the Dickens, but maybe it is a momentum thing only, just the size and weight of these vehicles for their engine size, the UK ones look smaller and lighter than the US ones i have seen - same with the tank-like, heavy chunk of steel cars.

As for your examples, I continue to stand by my - "i have never and will never attempt to hold up an EV, i give them plenty of room" but other than that, this is probably a lose-lose argument for me in any case, just keep digging myself in deeper somehow with explanations. I come out looking like a jerk for describing what i think is driving common sense by not pulling over immeadiately when an EV is 1/2 a mile away, when nothing is further from the truth. I'll just leave it at that.

(edited back a whole bunch more explanation )

 

[RonDawg]

So are you telling me that all these drivers who don't hear the sirens also don't monitor there mirrors. Am I sharing the same highway with these fools????

You wouldn't want to know just what kind of fools you're sharing the highway with.

You especially wouldn't want to know about the nasty substances being transported on public highways everyday. That truck in the lane next to you just may be carrying Armageddon-in-a-can.

 

[RonDawg]

It's pretty amazing sometimes how folks react when they do finally hear the siren :11:

While that is a problem, I'd rather have them hear the siren first.

 

[CHSpaintballer2]

I did this a few days ago, I'll admit (not pulling all the way over for a police car coming towards me in the other lane with lights & sirens on), but I did pull over as far as I could before I ran off the road in order to figure out where it was coming from and what it was. Only after I stopped looking behind me I figured out that the car was coming from the opposite direction so I then pulled over.

 

[Jim Ernst]

keep in mind folks not to defend the dummies, but a lot of time pepole dont hear them (the siren), as some one with the stereo on and windows up wont generally hear a siren until about 33 feet, and if on a cross street even worse, the best chance of hearing them is from directly behind , i am sure you know that! that is still a small distance, as an e m t i do understand your complaints as there are some real morons out there and they do cause a real problem, not to mention there are a few bad e m t ambulance drivers to boot