911 responder question

nobbie48 said:
Whether it’s a fire, medical or criminal issue, has the traffic jam issue of bike lanes been discussed?

Have any recommendations been made to drivers on clearing a path?
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Ze Germans do it right (as expected). In a traffic jam, normal vehicles move out to the shoulders leaving a clear shot up the centre on the nice pavement for emergency vehicles. That makes a lot more sense than emergency vehicles running over tons of debris and weaving through morons obvious to lights and sirens. This could work even with bike lanes (slow/stopped vehicles take a small part of the bike lane to leave room up the middle).

As far as anything being discussed, you have a reasonable and rational idea. Of course no politician would consider discussing it.
 
I'm surprised how many people don't know that you're not just supposed to pull to the right, but also come to a complete stop when an emergency vehicle is coming up behind you. I've been honked, and even passed, for stopping by people behind me.

Dealing with particular situations | The Official Ministry of Transportation (MTO) Driver’s Handbook

The online version of the Ontario’s driver’s handbook. Use this book to study for your G1 driver’s licence, test your knowledge, and prepare for your Level 2 road test.
www.ontario.ca www.ontario.ca

"When an emergency vehicle is approaching your vehicle from any direction with its flashing red or red and blue lights, or siren or bell sounding, you are required to bring your vehicle to an immediate stop.

When bringing your vehicle to a stop, you are required to bring your vehicle as near as is practical to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway."

In any case, bicycles are vehicles, just not motor vehicles. We would need to see if the HTA requires all vehicles to stop, in which case there is no reason not to pull over into the bicycle lane.
 
What they should be doing is having an ambulance / fire truck / police car going first to a call, and then a trailing car / motorcycle and pull people over that impede the emergency responders.

I have seen multiple times cars staying ahead of the ambulance because they're using the flashing lights as a way to move up ahead, and also trailing up the ambulance / firetruck tail to use that open space now to speed past traffic.

Will never happen, but would be nice to do so.

Alternatively, equip every first responder with a camera and then following a call send out tickets with heavy fines to anyone that doesn't move out of the way.

The latter seems that it would be easier to administer...and make it heavy financially. The video can be reviewed and identify someone who refuses to move over, versus someone that CAN'T move over due to lack of space.
 
Relax said:
I'm surprised how many people don't know that you're not just supposed to pull to the right, but also come to a complete stop when an emergency vehicle is coming up behind you. I've been honked, and even passed, for stopping by people behind me.

Dealing with particular situations | The Official Ministry of Transportation (MTO) Driver’s Handbook

The online version of the Ontario’s driver’s handbook. Use this book to study for your G1 driver’s licence, test your knowledge, and prepare for your Level 2 road test.
www.ontario.ca www.ontario.ca

"When an emergency vehicle is approaching your vehicle from any direction with its flashing red or red and blue lights, or siren or bell sounding, you are required to bring your vehicle to an immediate stop.

When bringing your vehicle to a stop, you are required to bring your vehicle as near as is practical to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway."

In any case, bicycles are vehicles, just not motor vehicles. We would need to see if the HTA requires all vehicles to stop, in which case there is no reason not to pull over into the bicycle lane.
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Bro. Last week I on my street the school bus was down the road picking up the kids (on my side) with the Stop sign out. I stopped behind the bus and watched 5!!! Vehicles in a row just roll past at normal speed going the opposite direction. I was waving at each car with a "wtf" gesture.

I am no longer surprised by anything anymore.
 
Evoex said:
Bro. Last week I on my street the school bus was down the road picking up the kids (on my side) with the Stop sign out. I stopped behind the bus and watched 5!!! Vehicles in a row just roll past at normal speed going the opposite direction. I was waving at each car with a "wtf" gesture.

I am no longer surprised by anything anymore.
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Automatic ticketing system built in the bus. Make it a $5,000 fine

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Scuba Steve said:
Automatic ticketing system built in the bus. Make it a $5,000 fine

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
That seems to be easy enough, could leverage existing speed camera tech and process and would help safety. Even if it was only in each bus occasionally, stupid drivers would feel the pain soon enough.
 
No doubt there are areas where this is likely a problem. There are roads that were two lanes in each direction in the city that have centre islands/medians down the middle of the road, the city installed king sized bike lanes with physical barriers and dropped the road to one lane in each direction. There is little space to move over enough to let a fire truck squeeze by between you and the islands/medians during high traffic, just no place to go. A dumb driver/deer in the headlights makes it worse.

Without the centre islands/medians as long as people on both sides pull over just a bit there is still lots of room down the middle like any two lane road, I don't see there being an issue for these roads

The lane reductions are a problem for street fests as they need to leave one lane open (no booths etc.) for emergency vehicles just in case, so there is now less space for food trucks etc. with less lanes available. They make less money....
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