Seen in our area - what is unusual around you?

T

TennVet

Member
We live in Tennessee. Whenever persons on the road meet a funeral procession, it is customary to pull off to the shoulder of the road until the entire procession passes. When I first came to this state in 1965 I wondered what was happening when I first encountered this event. It is a simple showing of respect for someone else at a time of loss.
 

In Ontario, that happened in smaller towns and cities. In BC, it wasn’t very common. That may have been because the usual funeral routes were more off the beaten path.
 

Here in Toronto, a large funeral procession ( more than 50 cars in total ) requires a Police escort of patrol cars by city by law. The funeral home contacts the Toronto Police Service , requesting at least 3 patrol cars, some time more. The officers driving the cars are on "days off " and the cars being used are fleet spares that are not assigned to a particular Division.

The minimum time period for such a "Paid duty " is 4 hours pay to each officer. The funeral director pays the invoice from the TPS, and the TPS pays the off duty officers, minus taxes. The lead Police car stops at each intersection, the officer gets out and stops ALL traffic, the procession approaches the intersection. The second patrol car takes over the intersection and the lead car goes ahead to the next intersection. The last patrol car stays at each intersection until the last of the funeral cars goes through, and make sure that no other cars are "tagging along" . On a busy week day in Toronto, there could be three or four such funeral processions that require a Police escort group.

I will point out that Toronto is by far the largest metropolitan area in all of Canada, with a population of more than 4 million in the Greater Toronto Area. Hence the requirement for Police escorts for large funeral processions. A long time ago, when I was a young man, I worked for about a year for one of the Jewish funeral homes in Toronto. The largest funeral procession I saw back then was over 400 vehicles for the funeral of a very well known Politician named Isadore Singer. JimB.
 
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I was born and grew up in Buffalo NY. I have been to and lived in several states and cities. Buffalo is dubbed "The city of good neighbors". I really didn't know why until I experienced those other states and cities. It's something that hits you right away when you visit here. We have a diversity of ethnicities, religions, income levels. We are the NFL's most passionate fans. We help each other. We love each other. We hate the winters here (well, most of us do) but we love it otherwise. I moved away for 32 yrs and just had to come back. We have The City of Good Neighbors.
 
It's mostly done here on 2 lane highways, passing the proceeding vehicles in the procession, well, it just isn't done.
Divided 4 lanes / 2 on each side, they travel on in the opposite direction, but if traffic is light people usually pull over anyway.
 
One habit that some of the locals (rural S. GA) have is if the car ahead of you is getting ready to make a left hand turn on a two-lane road, the driver will pull into the on-coming lane before making the turn 0.0

Obviously not if there's another car coming toward them. I guess they are trying to be courteous and get out of your way.

But it still freaks me out every time
 
I well remember riding in the funeral car for my father’s procession and watching the cars pull to the side of the road. The city police officers were at each traffic light intersection stopping traffic and they wore white gloves.

I will still pull to the side of the road for a procession as long as it is not dangerous. I would never speed around a slow moving procession.

however, I have to say I think this custom is dying out.
 
To be honest, I can't for the life of me remember the last time I saw a funeral procession. And in my family, except for my maternal grandparents, we have not had services or a wake or a gathering for my parents when they passed. Just a cremation and that's it. And when I die, I don't want any fuss or any expense either, just burn me and that's the end.
 
In PA, we do have special exceptions to laws that allow funeral processions to go through red lights or stop signs unabated as long as the lead vehicle entered the lights and it was green. At he stop sign, the lead vehicle must come to a complete stop at the stop sign and then the procession may proceed.

When a large procession of over 40 vehicles is expected, we recommend getting a local police car to lead the procession with their lights on.
 

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