The rules of the "corridor of life" - as we call it - is very simple, so there's no ambiguity. Cars on left lane move to the left, all other lanes move to the right. As you can see, works pretty well.

Regardless of the law in Poland, we are taught by parents and school that an ambulance is a fight for someone's life. If we don't help, someone may die. That's why all drivers facilitate the passage of an ambulance. A driver who does not do this may face a very unpleasant reaction from other drivers.

I have been to Poland several times it"s beautiful country the people are very kind I recommend visiting

The ambulance is driving from the southern part of Warsaw to the north, crossing the very center with really crowded streets. The reaction of drivers is the norm, every privileged vehicle is treated this way, we are very sensitive to it in Poland. And firefighters are probably the most respected profession in our country - when a fire truck drives around the city with its siren, the reactions are even faster :) I know cases when a husband took his wife giving birth to the hospital and called 112 from the car to get help - a police car appeared and cleared the way for him :)

Interesting fact i’ve been recently in Warsaw and the communication is just awesome bus trams go every 5-10 minutes you probably can go anywhere

10:04 Those are buildings from 50-60's [edit: it was brought to my attention that I missed some of the buildings on this street - Marymoncka, that in fact were built in 1930's-1940's. They do look close to those that were build in 1950's tho]. The ground floors are mostly (but not always) intended for some kind of business while other floor are apartments. The buildings are boxy and let's be honest not too beautiful, but they were not intended to be. As in the 50-60 the Warsaw was rebuilding after destruction of the WW2 (approx 95% of the city was leveled during the war) and there was severe living space shortage. That's also why the building had to be dual function (commercial and housing) 10:13 Dacia Duster. Is a Romanian car, cheapest small SUV on EU market (but surprisingly well handling in terrain..of course for SUV...).Mechanically and electronically Dacia is based on older Renault technology (usually 1 gen backwards) 11:56 Suzuki Swace of Warsaw PD is new purchase from 12 January 2023. 1,8 liter engine that makes 122HP with CVT transmission, those are also hybrid cars. The color scheme is new, before that Polish Police was using silver with blue and white details.The highlighter yellow was added short time ago so there are still cars in both paint schemes used. Warsaw PD also purchased some Kia Sportage in similar Paint scheme

Emergency drivers in Poland are top-notch professionals

Fun fact. They started from a place I used to live and travelled to a hospital where my children were born. I made exactly the same trip 6 years ago with a pregnant wife in the middle of the night ;)

W naszym kraju, każdy samochód uprzywilejowany (jadący nawet "pod prąd" oczywiście w granicach rozsądku to jest przyjete przez naszych polskich kierowców). Ostatnio jednsk coraz częściej zdarzają się wypadki z udziałem karetek pogotowia czego u nas nie bylo albo bylo bardzo rzadko. Niedawno byla taka sytuacja, że karetka pogotowia jechała i owszem "pod prąd" i zderzyła się z jakimś nieobytym w naszym zwyczaju pijanym obcokrajowcem w Uberze. Okazało się, że wina jest po stronie karetki pogotowia mimo, iż tamten był pijany! Takie zachowanie innych kierowców nie przyzwyczajonych do naszych zwyczajów ustępowania pojazdom uprzywilejowanym, bardzo deprymuje nasze polskie zwyczaje. To jest prawo nie pisane ale ten zwyczaj jest naszym prawem. To jest "prawo zwyczajowe".

I've seen ambulances in Warsaw using tram tracks during rush hour. Good to have that option I guess.

My mother is a doctor, when she was a bit younger she used to work in an ambulance. And she still says it sometimes felt just like clearing up the way in "Bruce Almighty" 😄

Damn, I don't have problems with anxiety, but just watching this, my anxiety rose to the roof. Hats off to emergency vehicle drivers.

Warsaw is my city 😊 I love your enthiusiasm man. Those ambulance are Mercedes indeed. Greetings from Poland.

Yesterday, in a relatively narrow street, an emergency vehicle came across. There were 3 of us facing him on the road, I was the middle one. As if a conductor were conducting us, we pulled over at the same time so that the ambulance could fit and at that moment I thought of your channel, that you would like it too 🙂 It feels good when strangers act like this together.

Driver was talking "move forward white audi" by outside speakers. This splitting vehicles is called "life tunnel"/"corridor of life" here in Poland. Often when we have traffic jam on highway ppl do the same thing even without amunalnce/police/firefighters coming, just to prepare for them to come :)

Hello from Poland :) 5:51 He said through the loudspeaker "Drive this Audi forward"

Some context about the situation is stated in the description of the original video. Roughly (machine) translated: "urgent transport of a patient from the National Institute of Oncology at ul. Wawelska in Warsaw to Bielański Hospital." Depending on the route, it seems to be about 10 miles.

3:14 - I have nice memories related to this particular Circle-K from two years ago. Just after the war started something like 3mln refugees (mostly women with children, elderly, etc.) arrived to Poland and many of them headed to Warsaw. Right then quite efficient grassroot initiative was formed to take care of those who arrived to Warsaw without any specific plans what to do next, so needed some at least temporary shelter (mostly in private homes, NGOs, religious communities, municipalities, etc.). I was one of the volunteer drivers - every day after work I was going to one of the train stations where help was needed and driving those who could not use the public transportation to get to their assigned places (imagine eg. mother and grandmother with 3 kids and 2 pets). Anyway - after few days the management of the Circle-K contacted us with coupons/vouchers for free gas on their stations. The one in the video 3:14 is the gas station half way between Warsaw Central train station and Warsaw West train/bus station, so it was often on the way. So... thanks Circle-K

More videos from Poland, please! 😁

Ian I really appreciate you being so open minded and enjoy your content a lot! I think, you and your family should visit Europe some time. If you need advice or help for Germany I would definitely support you by all means. It's so nice to see American people broadening their horizon. And props to you for always not judging, but just acknowledging differences! You are such a nice person, I really would love to have a good Munich beer with you some time.

Hello from Czechia! I really like your reactions to videos about the EU. You are one of the better reaction channels that react to the EU. I really like your reactions about cars, traffic, and driving. It really shows how you love cars and driving. Good job ^w^

The route was Wawelska street to Bielanski hospital - in Warsaw, through main roads. Good driving.

Cherry on top: There is quite high probability, that the ambulance has a manual gearbox :)

The end destination is indeed a hospital. Szpital Bielański (Bielany Hospital), one of the bigger hospitals in Warsaw, where my father works

The corridor of life (cars splitting before the emergency vehicle) is regulated by law (it was implemented like a couple years ago or so). Great video!

I work right next to where the ambulance started and live right next to where it ended, so it is basically the route I cover on the way home when I choose to drive (usually when I do some bigger shopping on the way). As for your questions: 9:55 - these are residential buildings with small businesess on the ground floor (think: bakery, pharmacy, watchmaker - i did exchange the battery in my iPhone somewhere there - etc.) On the right is the edge of a large park ("Las Bielański" - extending to the river which is ~1-1.5km right and further north (the direction of driving) connects to a national park outside of the city ("Kampinos forrest"), so you can meet all kind of smaller wildlife in the park (families of boars, foxes, beavers (close to the river), once met a group of roes [?]).

The ambulance travels through the very center of Warsaw, traffic-wise. Kudos to the driver!

In Poland those big roundabouts with traffic lights mostly aren't roundabouts. Just a group of short, wide, one-way roads in circular shape. Althought they are often called roundabout 😄😄Basicly, if you have intersection of two big streets, instead of making one huge intersection those streets are spliting into one-way roads, and then we have four smaller intersections of one way streets. Because of that traffic is much smoother

To praise the conscientiousness of people on the road who show respect and move as if there is no fasting tomorrow! All praise! People in Europe have this culture of moving when an ambulance is coming! That's the law! And yes, Brabus is driven by many, many people, something that is truly prestigious!

The Duster car is a Dacia Duster made by Renault. We have some of these in the UK. I love watching how the cars leave a space in middle. That doesn't happen here. We try to pull over to the left so that overtaking lane is free but as many of our roads are so narrow, this isn't always possible.

To answer your question around 10 minute mark, yes those blocks of buildings are usually residential with small shops or offices on the ground floor accessible from the street. And right after that segment the Duster car you haven't recognized is made from Dacia and it's an SUV.

Regarding the buses, also worth mentioning that a lot of these are fully electric. Really quick and quiet.

A nice ride through central Warsaw. The destination hospital is my neighbourhood one, and just a couple of days ago I emerged on my bicycle from the forest in front of the ambulance seen turning into the emergency entrance of the Bielanski Hospital. The forest on the right passed just before the final scene contains the physical education university. Warsaw has wide main streets because it was so destroyed in WWII, and the city was intelligently rebuilt. Rarely do streetcar (tram) tracks share roadways with cars and trucks, unlike Toronto, whose center is stuck with narrow 19th century streets, and even Vienna. While Warsaw has many roundabouts, often combined with lights, they don't compare with that most frightening of roundabouts, Paris' Arc de Triomphe...

That Suzuki is actually produced based on a license they bought from Toyota or Toyota owns them (I dont know what the exact deal here is). This particular one is a Toyota Corolla with a Suzuki badge and some minor changes. Other companies also do it with a couple other vehicles like for example Mitsubishi produces under their badge a mini-SUV from Renault. Suzuki also has a very limited number of their own models / designs like the Swift, Jimny, Ignis and Vitara.

Man, there is no such a thing like a "heavy jam" when the ambulance is coming. ;-) The rule is simple: left line goes to the left, all the rest goes to the right.

1. Video starts at Wawelska street near to Monument to Polish pilots. 2. Poland is 3rd biggest market in Europe for G class, also lots of G class Brabuses. 3. Very often they are shops at ground 0 and apartments at higher floors at buildings next to main roads.

Greetings from a Warsaw resident from this area

Norwegian statoil gas stations have rebranded as circle k in Europe couple years back

The roundabout (Rondo Zgrupowania AK "Radosław") at 7:50 is actually one of the more confusing roundabouts for drivers in Warsaw. It's a so-called turbo roundabout in which you can't change lanes once you enter to ensure smoother traffic and higher safety, so you have to choose the correct lane before entering the intersection.

Police car is Skoda superb, Ambulans on the end of video is Mercedes Sprinter. Last 20/30 seconds off vide there are apartments build in ‘40 and ‘50.

I'm 63 yo dutch. The first time I saw roundabouts/rotonde was in France. 40 years ago. Nowadays it is very common in Europe.

Thank You again for Your reaction, I really really enjoy watching all Your stuff. Greetings from Poland.

5:54 yeah, he said on the speakers "Go forward with that Audi"

7:40 - That's not a roundabout _per se,_ it's a traffic circle. It's called that because of the traffic lights. Roundabouts are supposed to have free flow of traffic.

@9:54 These are definitely residential buildings, with stores, services or businesses on the ground floor. Having an office on one of the floors of one of them would be unusual. A typical office building would look noticeably different.

A free trip in Poland. A 3.000$ trip in USA.

The reason you have a red light in the roundabout is because the trams go straight through. And many places have them to make sure public transport can go straight through (nicer bus ride) and get priority and not get stuck in traffic.

Warsaw, Poland due its economic success has become one of the most modern cities in Europe. Just google the pics of the city and you will be suprised. Warsaw has become a very trendy city…

Hi there, in 4:40 the traffic split is call " corridor of life " and people know this in Poland because it could be them next time and that's why we do it...

More than 15 years ago I drove to Warsaw city centre. It was night ang heavy rain and I didn't see really anything. I had old navigation leading me to the hotel. There was a big crossroad (many lanes) with traffic lights. I stopped on red and my navigation told me to turn left. Green light and I turned left. And I saw like hundreds lights against me. So I realized that I'm in trouble. It was NOT a crossroad but turnabout! I survived, nobody was injured, but I was so frightened. So drive carefuly and don't believe to navigations.

Emergency corridor is great! There's usually no difficulty to shift a car 1 meter to the left or to the right. Much easier than trying to merge the whole car into another line.

Skręcający ambulans to Volkswagen Crafter

11:57 fun fact - this is a Suzuki Swace which is a car made in collaboration with Toyota. Basically this is the same car as Corolla but with Suzuki branding. A bit more expensive than a Corolla due to only being made in hybrid version with auto transmission where Corollas come with more basic interior, manual transmission etc. Suzuki comes only in wagon body and Corollas also come in sedan and hatchback.

Just watching it makes me anxious. Ambulance drivers must be some kind of extrordinary human beings.

9:53, typically these buildings have businesses on the ground floor and everything above is apartments

Bro, you should visit Poland, you gonna love it! Greetings from Poland 🇵🇱

Grethings from Poland

This is called Respect for rescue services (fire brigade, ambulance, police) . Remember, the next one may be for you or someone you love.

Duster is a Dacia model. Kind of a city SUV. Very common in Europe due to quite good money to value. Dacia was a Romanian brand, now it is a Renault.

I've just watching, so far, for me I can see "normal" roads, traffics, etc. And a lot of cars, trucks, busses, motorbikes, byciles, and of course a lot of pedestrians seems to be total normal too. 😃 Me, beeing a pedestrians, or someone who take a bus, tram, trains, or a bycicle, since the last 40 50 years, since my childhood .( now in my fifties 😉 ) The busses looks a bit different and the sirene sounds are different. (from the rainy Germany in the evening)

Transport from Ochota to Bielański hospital. That buildings near hospital are old type housing from years 1960/1970 but sometimes in this buildings you can find some small business :) Nice to see positive reaction to my town.

What you see on this footage is Warsaw city centre. Warsaw was destroyed 85% during ww2. These buildings are old apartments. New ones are outside of the city. Road in Warsaw are much bigger compared to other cities in Poland because they had most of the city flatened by the Germans. I think Warsaw has a joungest infrastructure in Poland

9:52 These are blocks of apartments with shops and other businesses on the first or the ground floor (if you will :) ) On the right you've got a park and Academy of Physical Education, or a sports university. Very nice and green district of Warsaw.

Sweden has a massive roundabout, I have heard it's the biggest in the world. It's located in Linköping and it's about 400 meters across (1/4 mile). 3/4 of a mile to go around. It's just after a motorway exit so you can drive really fast in it.

We also have lots of Circle K filling stations in Ireland both north and south. They are a relativly recent brand that have rebranded alot of existing filling stations.

Destination was Szpital Bielanski, few hundred meters from my family flat. This hospital was build according to Russian standards in 50 ties. Very solid built buildings, still doing good job as a hospital.

W Polsce na drodze obowiązuje ❤Korytarz życia

Always love to see another video from our country :). That Duster there was a Dacia. Very popular car recently in Poland due to being fairly affordable. And I think it's currently the cheapest 4x4 on the market right now.

Yep that’s how it is here. Corridor of life has to work. Thanks for respect 💪🏽

The "corridor of life" mentioned in comments is a right-hand rule. If you look at your right hand you have a thumb on your left, space, and remaining 4 fingers on the right. This is how lanes are split - 1 on the left, the rest on the right, so the corridor is in the space between 1 and 2... lanes.

That was amazing to watch. That driver must have balls of steel (even if it was a female driver). You can tell that they have done this route before. They knew all the tricks. 4:48 I can't believe that they didn't take that Audi A5's mirror off. Like parting the sea. I've seen first hand the skilful Ambo drivers in Sydney & Brisbane. Honestly there are a lot of people here in Oz that wouldn't even move. Or you would have some hoon (Dickhead driver), tailgating the Ambo to get through traffic. Cheers Ian.

Traffic is forced by law to split between the leftmost lane and the lane second to the left, more complicated than "all go right", but leaves emergency vehicle with 2x half a lane instead of half a lane and a patch of grass to drive on when people move only half a lane to the side

The video starts at crossroads at Pomnik Lotnika, accident/emergency had to happen around Westfield Arkadia since ambulance went to hospital Bielański (I recognize Pomnik and Bielański since I study and have internships there😅) When it comes to ambulances there are Mercedes Sprinter, Renault, Volkswagen (though I don't remember which models).

Cirkle K is now owned by canadian Alimentation Couche-Tard. And they have bought up and rebranded huge parts of the petro retail in Europa as well.

About the police car. In Poland, there are different police cars in different regions, as the local government for each region chooses their own emergency cars, based on company offers and such. So that's the newer car, as prior if I recall correctly, Warsaw had mostly Toyotas, now I know about Skoda Superb being used there, but apparently they have Suzukis too.

Thanks mate for calling them roundabouts. To many of my American friends & some American reactor/social commentators, call them traffic circles

The duster is made by Dacia(a Renault company), it's the only surviving romanian car brand.

You were not mistaken. The ambulance you saw was a Mercedes Sprinter 419, and as you guessed, it was turning into the grounds of Bielański Hospital. The police car, on the other hand, was a Suzuki Swace. Greetings from Warsaw👋🏻

Welcome to Poland, you will be shocked at how beautiful and clean Poland is.

Pozdrowienia z Polski 🇵🇱 kolego dla Ciebie😊

It was an urgent transport of a patient from the oncology hospital at Wawelska street in Warsaw to another hospital near Marymoncka street thru the whole city during normal traffic. In rush hours the traffic is much worse.

[9:56] - These are apartment blocks built in the 1950s and 1960s

I'm from a different Eu country, but the traffic law say here that if it's a one lane, then you have to go right if an emergency vehicle is behind you. If it's multiple lanes, then the most left lane goes left, all other lanes gop right. (so if it's a 4 lane wide, then the most left lane is left, the other 3 lanes going right.) I think it's similar or same in most of the Eu countries.

Ian, (which BTW is my grandson's name as well, but with the "Y"😜) as others stated before, what really sets you apart from others is your ability to absorb other nations/sports/cars and whatnots without judging. I can tell all this "diversity" is an enrichment for you more than a comparison. I'm an Italian but got the privilege to be a guest of your Country, for a few years (7) and, like many, got deeply fascinated and involved with the American car culture. When I was there I owned a 70 383 'Cuda, a 67 GTO, and (my favorite) a white 70&1/2 Ram Air 3 Trans Am. I'm saying that so you'll know where I'm coming from (car-wise) and, as it is for you (but reversed?😋), was/am tickled by how different things are/were. From the narrow twisty roads and small engine nimble Italian cars to the gigantic streets and raw-powered muscle cars was a culture shock, but also a complete enrichment. I'm sure it is the same for ya. One note to you and most Americans: Our roads (all over Europe) were originally narrow paths developing in small settlements, where people mostly WALKED, then were enlarged for horses first, then chariots, and in the modern era, cars. Our big cities weren't designed (as in the USA) for cars but had to adapt to it. That's why they are so chaotic to drive in. Take care and keep on going, man!

Thank you for this reaction, never would find this video any other way

Greets from Poland

hahaha I know at 2:53 the ambulance was at the Rondo Zawiszy going to Rondo Daszyńskiego and Okopowa, I don't know why, but I didn't expect to know where it was oh and at 5:50 he said "move the Audi forward" to the driver of that Audi oh and at 7:40 the ambulance is at the roundabout next to Westfield Arkadia where trams are also going through that roundabout so yeah, it can be quite confusing 10:10 that's Dacia Duster, they're pretty cheap and reliable so some people buy them, also some Dacias come with LPG installation already installed which makes the car even cheaper to drive

Public transportation, public healthcare - the biggest suprise that life corridor.

5:57 Yes he does speak throughout a speaker he said “go forward whit the car” All cars that see or hear emergency signals or even lights they have to move right if they on the right side of double lane and if on left on the left side sometimes there is a really Urgent emergency like he’s bleeding out or his heart stopped then it’s called “droga życia” also translated “lane of life” all people that doesn’t go to left or right making some lane for the emergency vehicle can and will be fined whit a ticket even to 2000zloty in dollars probably like 200$

Great reaction :) The traffic seems to be quite average at the time of this video, this is definitely not rush hour. The Duster at 10:12 is a Dacia Duster. Dacia belongs to Renault and is what Skoda is for the Volkswagen group, although Dacia cars are cheaper. Compare the Skoda Favorit you drove with a VW Golf from that era, and you know what I mean: the Golf is way more expensive and luxurious, while the Skoda is very basic. A Dacia Duster can be a very basic car, and you have to buy a Renault if you want some luxury items like electrically adjustable chairs. A basic Dacia Duster without any options costs PLN 79000 ($18000) in Poland, while a comparable basic Renault Captur costs PLN85500 ($20500).

This is Poland! I found your video very interesting. Well done!!! Keep it up.

The ambulance's route probably led between two hospitals. The beginning is near the hospital of the Medical University of Warsaw, and the end is certainly the Bielański Hospital - a large hospital in another district.

Hi Ian. If you get chance, look at roundabouts in the Netherlands, in cities. There are concentric roundabouts, inner for cars, outer for cycles, but cars have to yield to cycles, which may come from either direction! 😂

I find the many different beeps interesting. With us you only hear the tatütata (10:15) in two different frequencies depending on whether the vehicle is driving inside or outside built-up areas.

4:50 In Poland on a road with two lanes in the same direction, the driver of a vehicle moving in the left lane is obliged to pull as close as possible to the left edge of the lane, and the driver of a vehicle moving in the right lane is obliged to pull as close as possible to the right edge of the lane on a road with more than two lanes in the same direction, the driver of a vehicle moving in the leftmost lane is obliged to pull as close as possible to the left edge of the lane, and drivers of vehicles moving in the remaining lanes are obliged to pull as close as possible to the right edge of the lane (but actually if you even cross line, then no one should complain and give a ticket) 5:45 audi driver messed, later you can hear someone in ambulance saying "put this audi forward"

Lovely Warsaw ❤

Warsaw is quite spacious being rebuild after war. Also city is newer than most of the big cities in Poland. If you want to see skinny and narrow roads, watch films from Cracov or Wrocław.

Sir:You went through Red Light? Yes:Your Honour Any reason why? I had an ambulance behind me. OK,case dismissed...

So long hauls for ambulances happen usually when all ambulances in certain operaton area are busy and one from neihgbouring square is directed. Other option is transportation of person or materials (blood, organs) to specialized hospital. This Suzuki you saw is a Suzuki Swace. It`s a twin model to Toyota Corolla - they are identical, its basically Corolla with Suzuki emblem. Most of ambulcnces in Poland is made by Stellantis Corp (Peugeot Boxer/Citroen Jumper/Fiat Ducato - identical to RAM Van), Mercedes Sprinter, Renault Master and some new MAN`s are appearing now (MAN made by Volkswagen). All diesel powered, manual transmission.

It started in quater of Ochota to the hospital of the Bielany Quater. In Ochota there is a hospital, but their ER is more focused on the orthopedic injuries and adults. So it either isn't an orthopedic emergency or it is a child or both, because there is diffrent orthopedic children's hospital.