median ambulance dodges traffic by riding highway road dividers like monorails

at the peak of rush hour, it can be very difficult for emergency services to reach accidents on highways. traffic jams can stretch for miles with cars lined bumper to bumper with nowhere to go for hours. to solve this, some countries feature ‘hard shoulders’ that are special lanes designated for emergency services; others require drivers to pull to the edges of their respective lanes to create an emergency route in between; and, in the worst case scenario, responders can try and drive in the opposite direction of travel on the highway to reach the scene. however, the median ambulance conceptualizes a new solution. like a monorail, it uses the road divider to ride along the motorway to reach the accident.

all images courtesy of hong seonghwan, lee hyungtaek, lee taekkyung and song yoojin

the special ambulance, which does not get affected by traffic congestion, was created by south korean desginers hong seonghwan, lee hyungtaek, lee taekkyung and song yoojin. it sits upon the road divider – also called the median strip – and drives up to the accident. the design features sliding doors on both sides in order to offer assistance on either direction on the highway. it also includes seats for both the driver and an assistant, and an area for a stretcher to look after the patient.

project info:

name: median ambulance

designer: hong seonghwan, lee hyungtaek, lee taekkyung and song yoojin