Calgary motorists delay fire truck downtown

[Wormius]

I saw this on the news last night, and then in the paper today.

Is it just me, or does this not really seem as bad as people are saying? It looks like the cars are trying to get out of the way, albeit a bit hesitantly in some spots I didn't see any blatant disregard for the truck or jockeying for position.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Vi...365/story.html

Is there something I am missing about this? Should the drivers have started clearing a way a lot further in advance?

[You Need a Thneed]

I don't know how it could be better for the fire truck.

[burn_this_city]

It's the people who have no concept of the size of their vehicle who don't move. The blue car about a minute in the video has tons of room but seems incapable of moving a couple feet over. I wish the FD would put a camera on the front of the truck and film these nimrods.

[Rathji]

There were several places where groups of cars looked like they were not even seriously trying to move until the truck was within a cars length of them. I know in a situation like that you have a hard time moving, but some of those guys did not appear to even try at first.

[valo403]

That's newsworthy? I didn't see a single vehicle that wasn't at least attempting to get out of the way.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

I don't know how it could be better for the fire truck.

In an emergency the fire truck should be able to exceed walking speed.

[ricoFlame]

every time I see an emergency vehicle with lights on, people are going above and beyond to get out of the way. It's one of the things that people in this city are very good at.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

In an emergency the fire truck should be able to exceed walking speed.

Cars can't move out of the way when there's nowhere to move to.

You can't really attempt to move too early, when you don't know which path is going to open up behind you. You also don't know if the fire truck intends to turn, or keep going straight at each light.

Again, overall that went nearly as well as could be expected for the fire truck.

[Swayze11]

The only WTF moment was probably at 1:23 with that truck... other then that, it seemed fine to me.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Cars can't move out of the way when there's nowhere to move to.

You can't really attempt to move too early, when you don't know which path is going to open up behind you. You also don't know if the fire truck intends to turn, or keep going straight at each light.

Again, overall that went nearly as well as could be expected for the fire truck.

Yeah. What I am wondering is what did the fire department expect at rush hour? They interviewed one of the firemen last night on New Hours and he sounded as if people needed to get tickets and warnings.

[ken0042]

Just watched the video- this actually wasn't too bad compared to some of the delays I see from my window. (4th ave approaching 9th street and going into Kensington.)

[Lt.Spears]

Maybe Ive played too much GTA but that firetruck should just bulldoze through those cars.

[chummer]

I have no problem with the motorists in that vid.......and I'm a firefighter.

[OffsideSpecialist]

I wonder what this guy would be if he lived in Montreal.

[rd_aaron]

Originally Posted by Swayze11

The only WTF moment was probably at 1:23 with that truck... other then that, it seemed fine to me.

I agree.

Also, how come the fire truck didn't just pop over to 7th ave and use it? Don't emergency vehicles generally use 7th ave to avoid traffic?

[arsenal]

8th ave is usually pretty empty at that time as well. Route selection at that time of day is just as important as vehicles getting out of the way.

[Canehdianman]

Yeah, hard to expect much more from people on a highly congested artery out of DT with a light every 100m.

[bomba]

I'm confused why the driver of the fire truck would take the entire stretch of 6th Ave at rush hour?

[Madman]

Originally Posted by rd_aaron

I agree.

Also, how come the fire truck didn't just pop over to 7th ave and use it? Don't emergency vehicles generally use 7th ave to avoid traffic?

Think how many CTrains are on 7th ave at that time of day.

[chummer]

Originally Posted by Madman

Think how many CTrains are on 7th ave at that time of day.

Yeah and we generally stay off of 7th unless we have a call on it.