"T i m" wrote in message
news
That's why the rules are there ... not for when good intentioned
things go right, but for when they don't.

Yes. Fair enough. You make a good case.

It feels wrong and inhuman and callous not to do everything humanly possible
to let the ambulance past.

I've was once stuck as the first car at lights with an ambulance right
behind me wanting get past. I knew that if I wasn't there he would have had
authority to got through the lights on red. He was blocked from overtaking
on the wrong side by traffic coming from my right which was turning left (ie
towards us). That traffic really should have stopped at their green light to
let the ambulance through, but for whatever reason it didn't - not one
single car had the common decency to let the ambulance overtake.

I was very frustrated that there was nothing (legal) I could do to let the
ambulance past until the lights turned green and I was able to go through
and turn left to let him past. I actually wanted to go straight on but if
I'd done that he'd have had to overtake me after the lights and there was a
long stream of traffic queueing for the lights that would have prevented him
doing so for some distance.

I wish I'd been able to say "sorry: I *want* to let you through but I'm
prevented only by the fear of being done for going through red lights. I
just hope those 30 seconds or so weren't critical for the life of the
patient.

There really does need to be a better way of letting emergency vehicles
through, but I can see the problems with changing the law to let road users
proceed, even with caution, through red lights or into a bus lane. Perhaps
the only solution is for emergency vehicles to be able to turn red lights
green, which would a) stop conflicting traffic coming from left and right,
and b) allow vehicles in front to go though legally. I suppose security of
such a mechanism against abuse and hacking is the main reason why it's never
been implemented.