This is my FAVORITE German show 😂 

Your first reaction was very interesting: "Pedestrians and cars compete for space? Why don't they just get rid of the sidewalk?" In Germany, walking is more than just a leisure activity. Most people walk in order to get to places. Considering how much time and effort it costs for a pedestrian to make a detour of more than a mile compared to a car I would ask the question the other way round :)

How to be very American : just get rid of the sidewalk 😂

The subtitles definitely need a mood marker because as extra 3 is a satirical TV show, most of what the "storyteller" says just oozes sarcasm and has real ironic undertones ^^

3:39 They are sending children through the tunnel because it's their way to school. But because they are worried about how narrow the tunnel is, the woman said that they'll start sending their children the long route around it.

The main issue with the older men is that they were all talking in a pretty heavy northern German dialects. Google Translate is good at working out standard German, but it kinda just gives up on dialects.

This tunnel is right where I live, I go through it everyday as a pedestrian and actually pushed a stroller through it today as well 🙈 The funniest part is that it’s also quite low, so that every other month a truck gets stuck under there and the whole street is closed anyway.

The local dialects of the old people aren’t even that strong, but they sometimes mumble a bit or slur their speech so the translator wouldn’t pick it up. I’m Austrian and speak a completely different form of German and could understand it.

The name of the show "extra 3" is a German-English pun. In German, it reads "extra drei" (3 = drei) and the pronunciation is very close to "extra dry". So, you can just call it "extra dry" instead of "extra three" ;). The 3 refers to the fact that the show comes from one of the regional "third" public broadcasting programs in Germany. We have "Das Erste" = ARD = "The First", which was the first ever televison program. Then we have the ZDF = "Zweites deutsches Fernsehen" = "Second German Television Program". Both of those broadcast nationwide. And then we have a bunch of regional programs like "NDR", "WDR", "mdr", etc. which are the "Third programs". Note, that Germany didn't have private television programs for a long time. That was only introduced in the late 80s iirc. Way after the introduction of the third programs.

The cliche of the "Soccer Mom" is a very american one. Since european cities are generally designed to be walkable and cyclable (at least more so than US cities, which to be honest, is not a difficult thing to do, since your entire country is designed around cars), and we also usually have extensive public transport, you don't need to drive your kid everywhere in order for them to be able to have hobbies that require leaving the house. They don't need to be driven, because they can just walk or bike there. And if they can't, they can take a bus most of the way. It's for this reason that you don't generally see soccer moms in Germany.

I am from Bremen. They build 2 lanes but forgot the sidewalk. So they took space from the two lanes and now we have this shit. The really funny thing is, one tunnel is used for a bus route. Imagine a bus and big car would try to pass at the same time. It dose not work. 🤣

"I thought that was a taxi." You guys have blue silver party taxis with flashing lights? :P

Well, in Switzerland we have tunnels and bridges like that, too, often old ones, built a long time ago. Where it is possible, we try to make them wider but if that is not possible, they are regulated either by "right of way"-signs, meaning one direction has the right of way before the other, or, if there is not a godd visibility, by traffic lights. I think these tunnel would need a traffic light asap.

2:30 He says "The tunnel is way too narrow, the cars could kiss each other"

Extra 3 is a german satire TV show brodcasting 1 episode each week. It´s about everything from politics to big companies, clima, war and all that stuff. And "Realer Irrsinn" (real insanity) is a part of that show. In short they collect all the strange stuff you normally won´t believe really happen somewhere and show one of them every week during the show. There is also a soecial show once a year where they choose the "winner" for the year.. and the winner gets a lawn gnome with that arrow as shown in the trailer at the beginning every time.. it´s like a "award" for beeing the town/company or whatever that was sooo crazy this year that they best everyone else. (Needless to say.. no town ever really wants to get that award^^) And the NDR is the TV channel producing and showing the show Extra 3.

5:19 The man says: “I don‘t know. They do way to much [planning / “calculating”] on the desk. Instead of talking to the people on how it SHOULD be done.”

The guy with the Deutz cap says that all of the planning probably was done at the office desk instead of evaluating things on site and talking to experts.

it was an honor to connect you with this show a few weeks ago. your reactions and extra 3 just fit like (attention german proverb incomming) ass on bucket

I really can recommend this TV show, expecially the part "Realer Irrsinn" (Engl.: "Real Madness"... about German bureaucracy and German engineering). After watching some episodes of this show you will definitely have another perspective on our perfectionism, bureaucracy and engeneering.😂

The only way to save the situation, that they install traffic lights an let the cars pass, 2 minutes one direction, 2 minutes the other one. So they prevent car accidents, so the sidewalk isn't dangerous. It's better than to leave it as something, nobody uses.

1:35 The guy with the Volvo does not know how wide his car is. Slowing down is much cheaper than ruining the tyres.

6:48 If you are drunk and rowdy enough they become taxis... with the single destination Ausnüchterungszelle(a night in jail to sober up)!

For anyone interested: -The guy at 2:30 is saying that its way to narrow. So narrow in fact that two cars passing each other almost kiss. The women at 3:39 explains that she has kids who should go to school through there but now she has to send on a detour.( like 6 and up year old kids) And the one at 5:90 in the tractor basicly states that too much is just made behind your desk while planing and not at the actual place.

My dude, if you need someone to translate something in real time for you, just ask :) I bet a lot of germans would love to hop in, me included.

For information: *Hummers are not allowed on German roads because they are too wide.* Thank you for this great video.

I am from Bremen and this tunnel is always worth a visit 😂

I live there in Bremen, 200 meters away, the tunnel has been widened to 2 lanes, and a bike and walkway has been built over the tunnel. That's Germany ^^

Yeah Bremen has some odd ideas when it involves streets (there is another episode involving a bridge and "creative" ways to limit the weight on it). That said as a Bremer i still love this city and would encourage you to check out somme videos about it cause as most german regions/citys we do have some odditys and traditions of our own.

Currently still being at work but i'll try and gonna translate what the folks on the street said when i'm back home tonight. Basically they were making quips and ironic remarks regarding the tunnel and the project as a whole.

The natural conclusion is to set up traffic lights at both ends. In Switzerland, we have several of these narrow underpasses (not false planning, simply times change) and even busses pass through below.

"zu eng" means "too tight". The "er" at the end of of "eng" is just another version of the word (Komparativ). Since the video is all about a tunnel that is too narrow, I would classify that as an important description.

2:33 what the gentleman is sayig is: "it's way too narrow, what are we supposed duck and pull up our ass (a german saying for trying to make yourself smaller/less noticable) since the cars are already kissing in there? yes yes? the heights also not quite right" and the lady said: "since the street has been built we've been guessing 'is this one-way or is this two-way?' and when we looked at the plan it turned out to be two lanes" also a simple solution so this could be to just put up a traffic light on each end that only ever let's cars from one side pass at a time. would lead to a bit more congestion but still it'd be safer imo

The sidewalk is probably why they made a tunnel. To reduce the walking time. I think the cars would better be reduced to one direction traffic or just turn it into a bike path. This is rather dangerous to all current traffic. Obviously making the tunnels a bit wider would have been better, but now it's there.

Fun fact: "Extra 3" is also a word play because it is pronounced "extra dry" (like some sort of sparkling wine). The dryness being the dry humor.

Just to clarify: NDR is a TV channel, Extra 3 is a show on that channel and "Der reale Irrsinn" is a segment on that show

Agreeing with the others: Walking is too important a means of transport to cut it off. My only idea to improve this would be to add traffic lights and only allow one direction for cars to pass, actually.

They will have to add a railing to the sidewalk. Then make it one way with one direction being the preferred one. If there isn’t too much traffic that’s fine. We’ve got a few canal bridges which are one way and it works fine.

The old men really have a very strong northern German dialect, but I am from the region and translate: 2:33 "It [the tunnel] is much too narrow! What they're saying for nonsense, cars have accidents there [...] that's not right either." 2:46 "Since the road was finished, we've always wondered, is it now one lane? And then we kept looking at the documents and it is two lanes after all!" 3:34 "Our children, they're going to have to go through here starting this summer because they're going to school. We're very worried that it's going to work out, they're going to have to take a big detour on the outside." 5:16 "Yes, I don't know, so there is probably too much done (work) at the desk instead of talking to the people, as it should be right, no? Unfortunately."

you really perfected that entrance from the side. i gotta laugh every time

The solution is not to remove the sidewalk but to remove a car lane. Maybe set up some traffic lights to alternate the direction.

"I thought that was a taxi." WHAT?!😂

Extra 3 (of which realer Irsinn is part of) is an excellent comedy/satire show. In my opinion one of the best in Germany.

German municipal planning administrations seem to be completely immune to learning. It's probably around 30-40 years in the past when they managed to build an aquaeduct in Karlsruhe in which public transport busses got stuck due to a tricky combination of street curvature and height of the aquaeduct. They've solved that by a height limit controls and traffic lights 😅

Wenn you asked for two "American cars" going through I thought of that one narrow street in my city here in Germany in which I just recently saw a RAM trying to pass a Land Rover and they barly got it 😂

That`s really real madness when the police had to dodge in the tunnel when two cars are driving next to each other.😉

One of the older men who could not be translated (the second one) said that this is what happens, when bureaucrats design things like this from their desks. The comment below from a citizen of Bremen stating that they actually planned no sidewalk whatsoever and then had to subtract its width from the car lanes during construction sounds believable to me. The curse of the "desk culprits".

In Switzerland, we have loads of roads and tunnels like these 😂 but they were built decades, even 100+ years ago. A new tunnel like seen in that video should be able to take 2 big cars.

The tile of the show is a pun. "Extra 3" has a double meaning - the first is that the "3" indicates that this is a regional program - in the past there were mostly only three broadcasts available - "Das Erste" (meaning the first broadcast), "Das Zweite" as an abbreviation for "Das Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen" (the second German television broadcast) and the regional broadcasts combined under the label "Die Dritten" (the thirds). The pun is the pronounciation of "Extra 3" which sounds like "Extra dry" indicating that it is a satiric news show. They are well known in Germany for very sharp journalism which sticks their finger into the wound. Usually everything they cover is true but their comments are over-the-top and very satirical in nature. They are also known for bending the boundaries but still being extremely honest about politicians and famous people.

Omfg, an American watching Extra3 O.o It is a show that shows the idiocy in bureocrazy etc in a satirical way^^ You will love it^^ Btw: NDR is the TV channel, Extra3 one of the shows^^

NDR is the channel, extra3 is the show and "realer Irrsinn" is a segment within the show.

I'm currently at the hospital, since I had a surgery and your videos really save me from boredom and it's also quite interesting seeing someone who's never been to Germany learn about Germany

There is a similar tunnel where i live (also in germany) and they came up with the solution to simply blocking the second lane. Now there is no other option than to wait for the other cars to clear the path.

You really need to visit us here in Germany one day. Would love to show you around.

8:30 Extra 3 is a satire show produced by NDR which is the public broadcasting network for the states of Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The show broadcasts on the TV channel NDR Fernsehen.

The show should add subtitles just for you! :D they didn't even translate the old guy for us into actual German.

As a German, I have a very simple solution to this problem, which also costs hardly any money. Just set up two traffic lights in front of the tunnel that turn green alternately. This way, two vehicles never meet in the narrow tunnel. This also works with roadworks

I am from Germany, and I have to say the subtitle isn’t always perfectly correct😂

Don't worry, a Hummer couldn't even get close to this tunnel, it would already get stuck in some other road long before getting there 😅

8:13 I don‘t know if there is a similar nickname for SUVs in the US, but in Germany some people are calling them „Hausfrauenpanzer“ (wife‘s tank). 😉

6:50 Sometimes, when you are too drunken, it could be a taxi for you :D

We've just a similar tunnel in my town. But it's one way with traffic lights on both sides.

A German soccer trainer once said :"There are more than 80 million traffic experts in Germany, except during the soccer Worldcup, then there are more then 80 million soccer experts." I am among the minority of Germans, who see themselfs as none of both, but things may be a bit more complicated as the friendly farmer thinks. There is obviously a junction right where the street through the tunnel reaches ground level, so there there may be very little space for the ramp down, unless you make the ramp very steep which causes other problems. With the short ramp you can't go very deep, so the clearance height is low and the room for the part that takes the load of the rails and the trains is also quite limited. The very flat construction of the supporting structure limits its length which is the width if the tunnel. It looks like there are a few restrictions here and they had to make some compromises and the result is not satisfying. But "they should have made it wider and higher and they only wanted to save some money" is a bit weak. And yes: those police guys should not ride on the walk way. Instead, they should collect the licenses from everybody who does! Then people would perhaps notice that although it is generally ALLOWED to pass the oncoming traffic there, it is not always POSSIBLE.

"Google translate isnt even attempting to translate what he is saying" People in the background: *laughter*

In case, you didnt know: every child gets traffic education in Germany, and training too. Cycle training too. Children are schooled to walk to their schools, not at the very first day, but later. They go alone to their schools or in groups. We have school busses for children, who live farer away, and they use the normal busses too, without having to pay. The state sponsors their tickets. The children get schooled, because they have to learn to handle their way to school alone. My son even drove by bus to his kindergarden alone, when he was six years old, and was very proud, that he could do this.

thing about the 4.50m width is, that the maximum allowed car width in germany is 2.25m so we're dealing with the technicality that it's allowed to be 2 lanes.

1:10 Do you know the 11foot8 bridge? Trains right above, pipes right below. Narrow in the vertical.

My town has a similar tunnel but it is not newly built, it's old and does not have a sidewalk in it. There's a sign on each side that you have to let a car pass that is already in the tunnel, you can't squeeze two cars into the tunnel.

The thing with the tunnel is just so narrow, because the road that led there before was only so narrow. As mentioned in the video, there are three of these tunnels, which were built to avoid having to stop at the old level crossings. And the fact that some drivers choose to take the sidewalk is still incomprehensible to me to this day. Either stop for a moment or slow down. It really fits. I can attest from my own experience. :)

There is like 3 feet between that Volvo and that white VolksWagen!! :D

I thought it was a Taxi 🤣 A Taxi to jail 🤣

Ryan, dear friend, lemme tell ya something. I absolutely love your vids and your type of humor, your family can consider themselves happy to have you :3 I really hope you come visit germany with your wife and son soon, would be pretty dope :3 aleight but now ima go back to watching the video

It is so funny to see Americans reacting on my favourite show

In the long term, it may well be, that the road and tunnel are declared to become a one-way-street, and that the pedestrian walk may get broader.

That old Farmer on the traktor said:" the people at the desk didn't do that much instead of asking people what needs to be done."

i love this show too and watching every episode

I can't anymore. This is so funny🤣🤣🤣.

5:20 What I understood (I'm a German native) was something with desk, I think he said that the traffic people sat at their desks for too long and didn't actually talk to the people

This is so funny watching your videos as a German 🤣🤣🤣

German people grew up with the info-tainment tv show like "der 7. Sinn" (seventh sense) about traffic rules and regulations, new traffic signs, regulations on boarding European countries in comparison, various traffic situation handling, which were aired on national tv station and everybody watched it. the series was aired between 1966 - 2005. I put a link down to an old episode from 1976, there are stuntwomen, stuntmen, child actors portraing how to handle situations according to the newest traffic rules. this particular episode shows that from beginning of 1976 all cars and drivers have to yield to cycylists and pedestrians and be aware ( hence the term seventh sense) about any critical situation that can happen in traffic and that vehicle drivers are responsible to drive alert. The responsibility is always on the one participant with the bigest vehicle since they cause the biggest damage to others. vehicles have to yield to pedestrians, motorcyclists have to yield to cyclists, cyclists have to yield pedestrians, adults have to yield children. That is why closing down the pedestrian sideway is very unlikely. in narrow streets like this, usually traffic lights regulate who can pass first or it will be changed to "one way" street without traffic lights. walkability and child safety will never lead to exclude or ban children from being able to use the streets in Germany and vehicles will have to be restricted eventually. the link about yielding to cyclists and pedestrians: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PVJU4sT8CB8.html the comedy tv show "extra 3" which you watched, made fun of the tv show "der 7. sinn" and aired this sketch about seniors and seniles driving a car and how they could put "old people stuff" on the back window to warn other participants and that their vast driving experience over decades is giving them actually better driving skill. there is an ongoing debate if seniors up from certain age should be allowed to drive bc there were some incidences where senior driver had heart attack while driving or mixing up gas and brake and senior drivers drove into people. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-g_kNWJdQZnk.html this one episode is about the responsibility to train the children to obey traffic rules and that car drivers have to yield to children playing outside. there are stunt child actors in this episode! drivers are responsible for murder if a pedestrian or child on the street dies. its from 1981. children were not imprisoned to homes till they were 16, they are participating of life outside the parental house. and when they become adult and driver, they will know from their own experience as children, how to drive carefully while driving through cities. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ELd52LfWBAo.html this episode shows how wet streets take longer time to slow down a vehicle and stand still and make driver alert to drive carefull. there are motorcycle stunts too. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fXg8m0rNR5w.html

The TV show is named Extra3, because it is aired on a so called third TV channel. The 3rd TV channels are called like that, because back when, they were the third TV channels, you could watch. Depending on the region, you got a different channel. At the same time, it is a hidden play of words, because if you say the name, Extra 3, it almost sounds like „extra dry“. This matches the very dry humor on display.

Another problem of the tunnel is that it is not high enough for most ambulances. My grandparents lived right there and my grandpa was really sick. He had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance from time to time and they always had to come a longer way because of this stupid tunnel.

2 possible solutions here: 1) remove the sidewalk: but that way pedestrians aren't able to cross over to the other side anymore. 2) install traffic lights at each side of the tunnel, so traffic goes only one way at a time. Much better and that way it's held in most German cities I know

Our street is even smaller. On one side, there are parking spots. The car, which meets a car from the other side, has to go between the parking spots, and to wait. We have pedestrian walks on both sides, where the children walk. Germany is more oriented to pedestrians and bikers. In our street is a school too. When someone wants to go faster by car, he has to make a detour. I live in an area, where a lot of elder people live, most in social housing, some streets are closed to public traffic, but people can walk, and the children can play on the streets and lawns, which are around the houses. There are no fences. So children have a big playground. The only ones allowed to drive everywhere is police, ambulances and fire brigades. These areas are quite common here. Car drivers are allowed to drive with 30 km/h or less. We want living areas, not driving areas.

extra-3 is a comedy-show(sarcastic), and we have a simple traffic rule here: 1,5 meter distance minimum at passing anything in traffic. People, bikes, cars, etc.

German children are used to reacting responsibly because we educate them to be self assured, and Germans in general are better drivers

We have lots of tunnels with trains over it..but never so small...

I live in Bremen and know this tunnel. If you look at my picture you might have an idea what I do. This tunnel scares the hell out of me!

You should definitely watch the video suggested at the end of YT "Realer Irrsinn: Zwei Brückengeländer in Dresden" - a real Schildbürgerstreich! Greetings from ibidem!

reminds me that most german parking slots, especially in park houses, are way too small for current cars. i think it must be a norm back to when the beetle was built, to only get 2,25m width. my car is a VW Up by the way, one of the smallest currently on sale, but bigger i think. 😆

Thats my Hometown and i must say the Story is great.

The guy with the Wegbier on his cane

Hey Dude, i'm German native and know the show very well. The purpose of the program is to draw attention to the failure of authorities. In the short interviews, it often becomes clear how those responsible talk their way out and invent bizarre explanations for their failure.

Extra3 is a show that uncovers all sorts of failures and flaws and comments on them in satirical and quiet ironical way. These "realer irrsinn" stories (could be translated as "real madness") are part of the weekly show and uncover things that went wrong or are just stupid in first place. Often they are things that were build wrong (as in this case) or if a government or other public authorities spend money for unnecessary things etc.

The number 3 in German is pronounced like "dry" in English. The show's name is pronounced "Extra Dry". I always thought it was a pun referring to the deadpan "dry" humour of the show, but I could not find any evidence for that. And you were right. NDR is a public broadcaster. Extra-3 is a show on that channel and "Realer Irrsinn" is a segment in that show.

There are several of these tunnels that keep causing issues, where I live we have one that is too low, so at least 4 or 5 times a year a truck will get stuck and it causes traffic issues and massive train delays...

5:15 He said that too much is done at the desk instead of asking to people as it should be

Not as dangerous but in a town close to me, they recently finished a swimming pool, after nearly 10 years of building. This swimming pool was supposed to be also used for swimming competitions and so needed an Olympic swimming pool. Happened what had to happen: they miscalculated. The didn't take into account the width of the tiles and the concrete (or what's used to make them stick). So basically they are missing 2cm (0,79 inches).. Millions of Euros down the trash

so: "Eng" means narrow, so "too small/narrow tunnel in Bremen". But if you need translations for the people, just hmu. I love this show haha. Greatings from germany

extra 3 shows the fails in construction and other things in a very humoristic way!

But to be fair, 2.25m is a normal lane width for residential streets. The issue here is that there's a wall on one side and a rim-eating kerb on the other, both pushing people into the centre of the street. Also, the road looks wide open, tricking people into driving faster than on a same-width residential street. And faster cars need more space.

That shows name is spoken Extra dry it's really meant that way because it sounds like the German drei which is 3 and means it delivers it's punchlines very dry. The channel is called Nord Deutscher Rundfunk drei (North German Broadcast three) shortened to NDR3 which Extra 3 takes it's 3 from.